"Besides buying a domain and using Google Apps on it (which isn't actually intended for home users)"
While it may not be intended for "home users", if you've got a domain name I wouldn't consider you an average home user. As you know, Google Apps will do everything you need. Unless you have some other issue with Google Apps, just go ahead an use it.
I never thought I'd be working with mainframes, feeling the same as most, that it is a old, antiquated technology. After making the transition from servers in the mainframe world, I can tell you that it's not. While mainframes may not have processing power to rival super computers, they are the king of IO, and extremely stable. For my industry that is why mainframes won't go away. Processing millions of physical items every night, where down time of minutes is catastrophic, a mainframe is the only way to go...
"Users may wish to turn on the privacy mode if they are planning a surprise party, buying presents or researching a medical condition and do not want others users of the same computer to find out."...
Or for surfing porn.;)
Pamela Wilderman, the code enforcement officer for [the Massachusetts town of] Marlboro stated, 'I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary home occupation.'
The actual article says:
Pamela A. Wilderman, Marlboro's code enforcement officer, said Mr. Deeb was doing scientific research and development in a residential area, which is a violation of zoning laws. It is a residential home in a residential neighborhood," she said. "This is Mr. Deeb's hobby. He's still got bunches of ideas. I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary home occupation.... There are regulations about how much you're supposed to have, how it's detained, how it's disposed of."
Either the poster didn't properly read, or he/she just considers zoning bylaws useless. For those that do think zoning bylaws serve no point, let me reference the recent propane explosion that occured in the middle of a Toronto residential neighbourhood, leaving two people dead and hundreds of homes damaged, and is now the subject of a zoning review
Learning COBOL is pretty simple. There is a great tutorial at http://www.csis.ul.ie/cobol/default.htm. COBOL is meant to be an easy language to learn. It's not object-oriented, it doesn't have a scope, so it is obsolete by today's programming standards. The one problem I've found with most COBOL programs is that they were written by very old school programmers that would code values directly into the program (rather than in a configuration file or table). There is usually a veil of secrecy too, mostly for the purpose of job security, but sometimes just because the programmer has forgotten whatever they programmed, and didn't bother commenting.
This was done in a suburb of Toronto (called Milton) back in 2000. The only problem is that they installed the fiber and had people living in the subdivision before it was finished. Less-than-careful construction workers kept running over the fiber juction boxes or cutting lines, and because of the repair costs they junked the whole network. Too bad though, because the link was blazing fast even by today's standards.
It's low impact (which is good because geek knees probably can't handle it) and it's got incline and resistance. I can burn off 900 calories in an hour if I push it. Do that 3 times a week and you'll be trim.
With any game, it doesn't matter how complex the puzzle, someone will post the solution on a forum nowadays. Now for veteran players, that have a sense of fair play and want to earn things for themselves, they'll avoid getting the answers from the forums. It would be a last resort and a sign of mental weakness.
For the newer players, that learned at a very early age that if they cry/whine long enough they will be given something to placate them, these players want instant gratification with a minimum of work. To them, they don't care if they beat the game on their own, they just care to finish the game.
They don't want to be challenged to think. They don't care how long it takes them, since they've been accustom to sitting in front of the TV/monitor for hours just staring blankly with minimal brain activity. They just want the gratification. I don't blame these new players, I blame their parents.
The best way to get a kid's interest for programming is to program something he likes to use. Even though I deal with non-game programming now, that was what originally got me interested in computers at a teen. My father was typing in computer games from old Compute! magazines, and I wanted to learn how to do the same. I also remember a summer course that taught LOGO. BASIC might seem "evil" to a Linux kernel programming, but put Visual Basic on a Windows machine is a good way to do it, or Java.
A monopoly would be a telephone company or electric company from the 80's, where you had no choice. Last time I opened up the Certificate Authority section of Firefox, there were a LOT of CAs. To name a few of the public ones:
Verisign
Thawte
Go Daddy
Network Solutions
GeoTrust
Entrust
Not to mention there are a bunch of second level CA's that are very reasonably priced. I think trainman needs to do a bit more research. If you can't afford GoDaddy's prices, I don't think you really need to be concerned with your customers freaking out.
The skull and crossbones is just a picture, but get some special effects guys to make a bunch of fake heads, all blood and everything, put them on pikes, and weather proof them. That'll get the point across...
Or we can hope that we simply won't devolve enough over the next 10,000 that we don't know what a Geiger counter is...
"Maybe I'm on the wrong track here, but I guess I assumed that wiretapping now happened in secret rooms at the telco, and not by affixing something physically to a wire in your home."
Wiretapping might happen in a telco if it was a legitimate government operation. If it's a rogue operation, a private investigator or just some stalker, they won't be using the telco company to do it.
If anyone thinks COBOL is a dead language, simply because the current majority of programmers don't know it, think again. COBOL is alive and well, with new programs being made for it every day. Mainstream programs running on wintel/unix systems don't use it, but it is the choice for governments/banks/large organizations. Why? Because it has a history, it is stable and reliable, and it is simpler for someone unfamiliar with a program to learn how it works. Every cheque that is processed today still goes through a sorter powered by a COBOL system.
As the author mentions, a new programming language is only useful if it addresses a much needed gap in other languages. Java addresses the gaps of memory management, complexity, and cross-platform. Java now has a huge install base, and is serving as a relatively stable language that can do whatever the imagination desires. It's maturing every version, giving it more credibility. It's pretty tough to compete with that.
Learning a new language simply to follow a trend is the sign of inexperience (not youth). Old or young doesn't play into it (although you feel it does). If a new programming language does the exact same thing as another, there is no point to migrate to it. Time and costs simply don't warrant it.
I can agree that learning several languages is an advantage. It helps focus your understanding of programming concepts by having to deal with them in different ways. But if you look people that know multiple languages, the languages are probably going to be from different categories: a low-level language, a high-level language, a scripting language, a compiled language, a web-friendly language, etc.
Btw, the languages I know (and the order I learned them in) are: BASIC, Assembler, C, Unix Shell scripting, C++, Perl, PHP, Java, COBOL. (Yes, I just recently learned COBOL for a new job)
I've gone through a number of similar transitions. Some companies will just give you the severance, but that doesn't happen often, since most companies are smart enough to know every employee will have little bits of information that only they know.
What your company is essentially doing is asking you to transfer your knowledge to other staff, by requiring you to utilize others to get your job done. You should now view yourself as a teacher only, allowing your coworkers to gain experience by doing your work, and guiding them when they run into trouble. Restoring access would give you the opportunity to do hands-on work up until the last minute, but would your coworkers be able to manage it immediately after you left? If they're smart enough, of course they'll catch on, but it might take a few days/weeks, and in that time there might be a critical outage, etc, where they need to know the information.
Other than the fact the commercials might be dynamic based on the user watching, the whole idea of "advertisement slots" within a video is exactly the same as the good old TV shows/commercials we already know and love. This doesn't seem worthy of a patent.
Granted, the current political and economic situations cause a problem with the supply of gasoline. If it isn't OPEC cutting quotas, it's a war somewhere, or not being able to find fresh oil patches. But the real problem here is that we're slowly (or maybe quickly) destroying our home by burning these fuels. While this is a very interesting technical breakthrough, finding or producing more gasoline isn't the problem. The efforts of those involved would have been better spent finding new ways to produce alternative fuels. This could be likened to the tobacco companies saying they found a new way to make cigarettes without tobacco plants. Same deadly affects, and less hassle producing it. It almost sounds like someone needs to remind these people that the game plan is to fix the problem of polluting our planet, not just fix the "oil dependancy" problem.
More likely it's because the RIAA is scared that having that many lawyers-in-training and law professors pissed off at them might be a good way to have all their legal efforts crushed.
Just to end the speculation, I'm Canadian [the neighbours in the apartment upstairs;-) ]. So I like my words spelled with U's: favourite, honour, colour, neighbour, etc.
While I don't have a particular favourite (because as you can tell by my spelling I'm actually not American), I think it would be good to get a president that would help get rid of that silly anti-online gambling law. I miss all my good american gambling buddies. While I'm sure Nevada/Las Vegas are trying to defend their brick-and-mortar casinos, they should realize that even with online gambling Nevada/Las Vegas will still have its attraction due to the instance weddings, glitzy shows and legalized prostitution;-)
The funny thing is this accessory probably wouldn't have gotten much mainstream notice and might have disappeared in a while. But now Apple has given them a wonderful "helping hand" and probably multplied their sales six-fold.
Slashdot Mirror
"Besides buying a domain and using Google Apps on it (which isn't actually intended for home users)" While it may not be intended for "home users", if you've got a domain name I wouldn't consider you an average home user. As you know, Google Apps will do everything you need. Unless you have some other issue with Google Apps, just go ahead an use it.
This was also covered in an article in the Toronto Star.
I still miss having my Unix command line thought!
And I'm 34.
"Users may wish to turn on the privacy mode if they are planning a surprise party, buying presents or researching a medical condition and do not want others users of the same computer to find out."... Or for surfing porn. ;)
Otherwise this would be a great DIY thing.
Pamela Wilderman, the code enforcement officer for [the Massachusetts town of] Marlboro stated, 'I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary home occupation.'
The actual article says:
Pamela A. Wilderman, Marlboro's code enforcement officer, said Mr. Deeb was doing scientific research and development in a residential area, which is a violation of zoning laws. It is a residential home in a residential neighborhood," she said. "This is Mr. Deeb's hobby. He's still got bunches of ideas. I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary home occupation. ... There are regulations about how much you're supposed to have, how it's detained, how it's disposed of."
Either the poster didn't properly read, or he/she just considers zoning bylaws useless. For those that do think zoning bylaws serve no point, let me reference the recent propane explosion that occured in the middle of a Toronto residential neighbourhood, leaving two people dead and hundreds of homes damaged, and is now the subject of a zoning review
Thank goodness we're too soon for the Treaty of Algeron, so we can develop all the cloaking technology we want. Take that, Romulans!
Learning COBOL is pretty simple. There is a great tutorial at http://www.csis.ul.ie/cobol/default.htm. COBOL is meant to be an easy language to learn. It's not object-oriented, it doesn't have a scope, so it is obsolete by today's programming standards. The one problem I've found with most COBOL programs is that they were written by very old school programmers that would code values directly into the program (rather than in a configuration file or table). There is usually a veil of secrecy too, mostly for the purpose of job security, but sometimes just because the programmer has forgotten whatever they programmed, and didn't bother commenting.
This was done in a suburb of Toronto (called Milton) back in 2000. The only problem is that they installed the fiber and had people living in the subdivision before it was finished. Less-than-careful construction workers kept running over the fiber juction boxes or cutting lines, and because of the repair costs they junked the whole network. Too bad though, because the link was blazing fast even by today's standards.
It's low impact (which is good because geek knees probably can't handle it) and it's got incline and resistance. I can burn off 900 calories in an hour if I push it. Do that 3 times a week and you'll be trim.
For the newer players, that learned at a very early age that if they cry/whine long enough they will be given something to placate them, these players want instant gratification with a minimum of work. To them, they don't care if they beat the game on their own, they just care to finish the game.
They don't want to be challenged to think. They don't care how long it takes them, since they've been accustom to sitting in front of the TV/monitor for hours just staring blankly with minimal brain activity. They just want the gratification. I don't blame these new players, I blame their parents.
The best way to get a kid's interest for programming is to program something he likes to use. Even though I deal with non-game programming now, that was what originally got me interested in computers at a teen. My father was typing in computer games from old Compute! magazines, and I wanted to learn how to do the same. I also remember a summer course that taught LOGO. BASIC might seem "evil" to a Linux kernel programming, but put Visual Basic on a Windows machine is a good way to do it, or Java.
Not to mention there are a bunch of second level CA's that are very reasonably priced. I think trainman needs to do a bit more research. If you can't afford GoDaddy's prices, I don't think you really need to be concerned with your customers freaking out.
Or we can hope that we simply won't devolve enough over the next 10,000 that we don't know what a Geiger counter is...
Wiretapping might happen in a telco if it was a legitimate government operation. If it's a rogue operation, a private investigator or just some stalker, they won't be using the telco company to do it.
As the author mentions, a new programming language is only useful if it addresses a much needed gap in other languages. Java addresses the gaps of memory management, complexity, and cross-platform. Java now has a huge install base, and is serving as a relatively stable language that can do whatever the imagination desires. It's maturing every version, giving it more credibility. It's pretty tough to compete with that.
Learning a new language simply to follow a trend is the sign of inexperience (not youth). Old or young doesn't play into it (although you feel it does). If a new programming language does the exact same thing as another, there is no point to migrate to it. Time and costs simply don't warrant it.
I can agree that learning several languages is an advantage. It helps focus your understanding of programming concepts by having to deal with them in different ways. But if you look people that know multiple languages, the languages are probably going to be from different categories: a low-level language, a high-level language, a scripting language, a compiled language, a web-friendly language, etc.
Btw, the languages I know (and the order I learned them in) are: BASIC, Assembler, C, Unix Shell scripting, C++, Perl, PHP, Java, COBOL. (Yes, I just recently learned COBOL for a new job)
I've gone through a number of similar transitions. Some companies will just give you the severance, but that doesn't happen often, since most companies are smart enough to know every employee will have little bits of information that only they know.
What your company is essentially doing is asking you to transfer your knowledge to other staff, by requiring you to utilize others to get your job done. You should now view yourself as a teacher only, allowing your coworkers to gain experience by doing your work, and guiding them when they run into trouble. Restoring access would give you the opportunity to do hands-on work up until the last minute, but would your coworkers be able to manage it immediately after you left? If they're smart enough, of course they'll catch on, but it might take a few days/weeks, and in that time there might be a critical outage, etc, where they need to know the information.
Other than the fact the commercials might be dynamic based on the user watching, the whole idea of "advertisement slots" within a video is exactly the same as the good old TV shows/commercials we already know and love. This doesn't seem worthy of a patent.
A quick blast with the anti-satellite weapon from China and we'd all be saved! :)
Granted, the current political and economic situations cause a problem with the supply of gasoline. If it isn't OPEC cutting quotas, it's a war somewhere, or not being able to find fresh oil patches. But the real problem here is that we're slowly (or maybe quickly) destroying our home by burning these fuels. While this is a very interesting technical breakthrough, finding or producing more gasoline isn't the problem. The efforts of those involved would have been better spent finding new ways to produce alternative fuels. This could be likened to the tobacco companies saying they found a new way to make cigarettes without tobacco plants. Same deadly affects, and less hassle producing it. It almost sounds like someone needs to remind these people that the game plan is to fix the problem of polluting our planet, not just fix the "oil dependancy" problem.
More likely it's because the RIAA is scared that having that many lawyers-in-training and law professors pissed off at them might be a good way to have all their legal efforts crushed.
How long before someone asks for an all-syrup squishy and goes to join the Junior Campers.
Just to end the speculation, I'm Canadian [the neighbours in the apartment upstairs ;-) ]. So I like my words spelled with U's: favourite, honour, colour, neighbour, etc.
While I don't have a particular favourite (because as you can tell by my spelling I'm actually not American), I think it would be good to get a president that would help get rid of that silly anti-online gambling law. I miss all my good american gambling buddies. While I'm sure Nevada/Las Vegas are trying to defend their brick-and-mortar casinos, they should realize that even with online gambling Nevada/Las Vegas will still have its attraction due to the instance weddings, glitzy shows and legalized prostitution ;-)
The funny thing is this accessory probably wouldn't have gotten much mainstream notice and might have disappeared in a while. But now Apple has given them a wonderful "helping hand" and probably multplied their sales six-fold.