One thing about the mainframe coding mentality was that compilation time was expensive, processing time was expensive, and sophisticated debuggers didn't exist (and it's expensive to print 500+ page core dumps on fanfold paper). So programmers tended to do much more up-front design so that the first effort tended to be much higher quality.
Or, as I saw on someone's whiteboard once, "It's easier to teach a COBOL programmer C than to teach a C programmer discipline".
>> If the formula you're using is sound, but the values you're plugging into the variables are random numbers you've pulled out of your ass, what's the point?
Sounds like financial planning to me:-)
Random numbers == how long you expect to live, what the tax rates will be 20+ years from now, what inflation is going to be for the next N years, what your expected rate of return will be, etc.
I'm not willing to sacrifice processor speed, memory, disk drive space, and optical capability so that I can fit my laptop into an interoffice envelope.
I feel the same way about the iPhone -- with 16GB storage, it is in no way a replacement for my current iPod. But I suspect if he'd been willing to accept 1/16 of an inch increased thickness, we could be looking at 32GB or 64GB, and then you've got me as a customer.
Yes, they shouldn't keep taxing the same money every time it changes hands.
The government should just take their percentage directly as it rolls off the printing presses, and be
done with it.
(tongue planted firmly in cheek, if that's not obvious)
I'm sitting in a JavaOne BOF right now where reification of generics (the fancy way of saying not throwing away type information) is being mentioned as a possible JDK 7 feature.
There are some real compatibility issues in doing this (I remember Gilad Bracha covering this at a previous JavaOne), but it sounds like they are at least willing to take a look at it again.
So, this is the same industry that charges me the same ticket price to see a movie whether it cost $280 million or $40 thousand to produce? Whether the top billed star was paid $20 million or scale?
First-run movies have never had tiered pricing before, why is it suddenly important to the studios?
I'm not able to read the article, as apparently the site was slashdotted after the second reader.
I had several Newtons - an MP 100, an MP 120, and finally an MP 2000 (that was later upgraded to an MP 2100). The technology improved dramatically over those generations, and I really would love to see what would have emerged had development continued.
Since the Newton, I've used Palm, PocketPC, and Sharp Zaurus PDAs, and have yet to find anything I consider a worthy successor to the Newton. The integration of all the applications was seamless, and the software was truly designed to be used on a PDA, not just scaled down from some desktop application.
The form factor was a little clunky - either a smaller pocket-sized device, or a full-size tablet would have been better in my opinion - but I'm still looking for an overall user experience that's comparable, and haven't found it.
Re:Java 3D Desktop (better starting point link)
on
3D User Interfaces
·
· Score: 1
I probably should have posted
this link
first, as a better intro (screenshots and such).
If you're interested in 3D interfaces, you should take a look at Project Looking Glass from Sun:
Project Looking Glass
This was demo'ed at JavaOne this year, and really had some catchy visual features. Window contents can be saved to a backing pixmap and then applied to (wrapped around) objects of any shape.
Windows could be rotated (for example, post-its or config info was stuck to the back of a flat window in several cases)
This is still in the prototype stage, but the developer's release is open-sourced and available at java.net.
Good point, and I left out another important change between 'crapless craps' and the normal game -
You can't play the don't side (Dont Pass, Dont Come) in a crapsless game.
So a disadvantage to the shooter becomes a disadvantage to all bettors, since you can't play with the house.
The 'crapless craps' games actually have a larger house advantage than standard craps.
This is because not only do 2, 3, and 12 (normally losers) become point bets, but so does 11 (normally a winner). The number of times a winning come-out 11 turns into a point not made more than compensates the casino for the number of come-out craps rolls that turn into points made.
The 'advantage' of the Netscape version is that it hides some of Mozillas pop-up blocking features, because otherwise it would interfere with AOLs preferred method of annoying their users.
There may be other features that are hidden or disabled as well, but that's enough for me to go with the Mozilla flavor.
Re:Temperature detectors...
on
Columbia Coverage
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Columbia, as the first orbiter built, carried quite a bit more instrumentation that the other shuttles.
NASA believed that they had learned enough from these sensors/instruments that they were no longer needed. At some point (I'm not sure how many flights ago), NASA stopped collecting the data from them, and during Columbia's recent refit, they were removed altogether.
This was Columbia's first flight since the refit (and removal of those additional sensors), but from the briefing it seemed like even had they been aboard, they would not have been active.
I finally saw Nemesis, and actually thought it was a pretty good flick.
But I didn't see it opening weekend or soon thereafter, because Berman & Co. have been churning out so much crap lately (Voyager, Enterprise) that I did not have high expectations for the movie.
And even though I enjoyed this one, I have no particular burning desire to see another. You can't miss something if it refuses to go away -- give the franchise a rest for a while, and then people might care about seeing a new feature file.
J2EE does allow you to write code in a way that avoids vendor lock in. I would say it's much easier to do in J2EE than in almost any other environment, but it still does require some forethought.
Case in point: I developed some code that was originally deployed in Tomcat. When I moved the code to BEA, it failed to run (or even compile). It turns out that I used a data type (String[], an array of strings) in a JavaServer page that was not one of the data types that JSP containers are required to support. But, the spec doesn't say that you must reject any other data types -- so Tomcat is perfectly right in allowing this construct, and BEA is perfectly right in rejecting it. So there is a grey area that programmers must be aware of if they want to maximize portability.
Sun has created an Application Verification Kit (AVK) that should help identify these types of issues -- think of it as lint for J2EE objects.
Also, if you're looking for a book covering developing for J2EE using open source tools (Ant, Tomcat, Struts, etc.), I highly recommend J2EE and JAX: Developing Web Applications and Web Services. It is, without qualification, the best book I've ever written on this subject:-). More info is also available at http://www.theYawns.com
'A' is different than 'a'. This isn't unique to computer filenames; we all learned this in the first grade. If there is any confusion, it is probably caused by those other computers that blurred a distinction we were all quite comfortable with.
What is confusing is that "A" and "a" don't sort next to each other -- so, letter.txt doesn't end up following Letter.txt, but instead is down somewhere past Zebra.jpg. That defies reason; if something is to be fixed, let it be that.
Slashdot Mirror
All things in moderation
Especially moderation.
One thing about the mainframe coding mentality was that compilation time was expensive, processing time was expensive, and sophisticated debuggers didn't exist (and it's expensive to print 500+ page core dumps on fanfold paper). So programmers tended to do much more up-front design so that the first effort tended to be much higher quality.
Or, as I saw on someone's whiteboard once, "It's easier to teach a COBOL programmer C than to teach a C programmer discipline".
Sounds like financial planning to me :-)
Random numbers == how long you expect to live, what the tax rates will be 20+ years from now, what inflation is going to be for the next N years, what your expected rate of return will be, etc.
But the formulas are accurate!
Back in the stone age when you didn't own your phone, but just leased it from the phone company, those things were darn near indestructible.
100% agree. If Steve had announced a MacBook Pro with Penryn, I'd be at the Apple store now rather than whining on Slashdot.
I'm not willing to sacrifice processor speed, memory, disk drive space, and optical capability so that I can fit my laptop into an interoffice envelope.
I feel the same way about the iPhone -- with 16GB storage, it is in no way a replacement for my current iPod. But I suspect if he'd been willing to accept 1/16 of an inch increased thickness, we could be looking at 32GB or 64GB, and then you've got me as a customer.
"I've got a bad feeling about this"
Yes, they shouldn't keep taxing the same money every time it changes hands. The government should just take their percentage directly as it rolls off the printing presses, and be done with it. (tongue planted firmly in cheek, if that's not obvious)
There are some real compatibility issues in doing this (I remember Gilad Bracha covering this at a previous JavaOne), but it sounds like they are at least willing to take a look at it again.
And it's not that I don't know the meaning of OP, but if it's a basic writing skill to define acronyms on first use, that includes you.
So, this is the same industry that charges me the same ticket price to see a movie whether it cost $280 million or $40 thousand to produce? Whether the top billed star was paid $20 million or scale?
First-run movies have never had tiered pricing before, why is it suddenly important to the studios?
Just to get it straight - is a kajillion more or less than a brazilian?
I had several Newtons - an MP 100, an MP 120, and finally an MP 2000 (that was later upgraded to an MP 2100). The technology improved dramatically over those generations, and I really would love to see what would have emerged had development continued.
Since the Newton, I've used Palm, PocketPC, and Sharp Zaurus PDAs, and have yet to find anything I consider a worthy successor to the Newton. The integration of all the applications was seamless, and the software was truly designed to be used on a PDA, not just scaled down from some desktop application.
The form factor was a little clunky - either a smaller pocket-sized device, or a full-size tablet would have been better in my opinion - but I'm still looking for an overall user experience that's comparable, and haven't found it.
The link above is for downloading the code
Project Looking Glass
This was demo'ed at JavaOne this year, and really had some catchy visual features. Window contents can be saved to a backing pixmap and then applied to (wrapped around) objects of any shape.
Windows could be rotated (for example, post-its or config info was stuck to the back of a flat window in several cases)
This is still in the prototype stage, but the developer's release is open-sourced and available at java.net.
Hmm. Pre-Enterprise, Pre-Starfleet, before Kirk, etc. So, is "When Harry Met Sally" a Trek prequel? Isn't every present-day movie?
You can't play the don't side (Dont Pass, Dont Come) in a crapsless game.
So a disadvantage to the shooter becomes a disadvantage to all bettors, since you can't play with the house.
This is because not only do 2, 3, and 12 (normally losers) become point bets, but so does 11 (normally a winner). The number of times a winning come-out 11 turns into a point not made more than compensates the casino for the number of come-out craps rolls that turn into points made.
There may be other features that are hidden or disabled as well, but that's enough for me to go with the Mozilla flavor.
NASA believed that they had learned enough from these sensors/instruments that they were no longer needed. At some point (I'm not sure how many flights ago), NASA stopped collecting the data from them, and during Columbia's recent refit, they were removed altogether.
This was Columbia's first flight since the refit (and removal of those additional sensors), but from the briefing it seemed like even had they been aboard, they would not have been active.
But I didn't see it opening weekend or soon thereafter, because Berman & Co. have been churning out so much crap lately (Voyager, Enterprise) that I did not have high expectations for the movie.
And even though I enjoyed this one, I have no particular burning desire to see another. You can't miss something if it refuses to go away -- give the franchise a rest for a while, and then people might care about seeing a new feature file.
Case in point: I developed some code that was originally deployed in Tomcat. When I moved the code to BEA, it failed to run (or even compile). It turns out that I used a data type (String[], an array of strings) in a JavaServer page that was not one of the data types that JSP containers are required to support. But, the spec doesn't say that you must reject any other data types -- so Tomcat is perfectly right in allowing this construct, and BEA is perfectly right in rejecting it. So there is a grey area that programmers must be aware of if they want to maximize portability.
Sun has created an Application Verification Kit (AVK) that should help identify these types of issues -- think of it as lint for J2EE objects.
Also, if you're looking for a book covering developing for J2EE using open source tools (Ant, Tomcat, Struts, etc.), I highly recommend J2EE and JAX: Developing Web Applications and Web Services. It is, without qualification, the best book I've ever written on this subject :-). More info is also available at http://www.theYawns.com
Blue can of steel
What promise do you hold?
Salt flesh so ripe
Can of metal, slick
Soft center, so cool, moistening
I yearn for your salt
Twist, pull the sharp lid
Jerks and cuts me deeply but
Spam, aah, my poultice
Silent, former pig
One communal awareness
Myriad pink bricks
Clad in metal, proud
No mere salt-curing for you
You are not bacon
And who dares mock Spam?
You? you? you are not worthy
Of one rich pink fleck
Like some spongy rock
A granite, my piece of Spam
In sunlight on my plate
Little slab of meat
In a wash of clear jelly
Now I heat the pan
Oh tin of pink meat
I ponder what you may be:
Snout or ear or feet?
In the cool morning
I fry up a slab of Spam
A dog barks next door
Pink tender morsel
Glistening with salty gel
What the hell is it?
Ears, snouts and innards
A homogeneous mass
Pass another slice
Old man seeks doctor
"I eat Spam daily", he says.
Angioplasty
Highly unnatural
The tortured shape of this "food"
A small pink coffin
Pink beefy temptress
I can no longer remain
Vegetarian
What is confusing is that "A" and "a" don't sort next to each other -- so, letter.txt doesn't end up following Letter.txt, but instead is down somewhere past Zebra.jpg. That defies reason; if something is to be fixed, let it be that.
I think their was a Seinfeld episode where Kramer tried that trick. It didn't work.