Do you write drivers? Or do you need highly optimized algorithms? What about really low level firmware stuff?
In other words, yes, there are good reasons for knowing assembly. Whether or not you'll actually use it is another matter entirely. Just depends on what you're working on.
Actually I wouldn't be surprised if in about 10-15 years assembly programmers are in higher demand since none of the CS schools these days ever teach assembly anymore.
Might be better to assemble the ship in space, docked to the ISS or something. IIRC, the apollo lander and service module could fit in the space shuttle's cargo bay, and even if I have the dimensions horribly wrong, we could bring pieces along in multiple trips. The only problem I see is fuel, though maybe we could use solar sails or an ion drive to offset that. When the astronauts get back, they can just hitch a ride down on one of the shuttles. The other bonus is it'd be reusable, just refuel on another trip.
Seems like the more efficient method to me *shrug*
I'm with you. I used to try and get people to switch, but it's a waste of time. Most people can't stand to learn anything on their own and thus can't work with linux without someone holding their hand. Unless you're prepared to tutor someone permanently, there's no point in getting people to switch.
Given that what he was using was a different version, maybe the act of checking or unchecking the public folders subscribed and unsubscribed? Novell has a distinct lack of documentation for 2.8 easily available on their website (shame on you Novell), so it's difficult to confirm, but this would be a logical feature to have.
Regardless, even if it didn't work, couldn't he just downgrade to 2.6? Or maybe find an IRC channel the devs hang out in and ask them directly? How about documentation released with the binary?
I don't know, I get the feeling the 'quitter' tag is appropriate here.
I don't really have a desire to read through the entire patent to see if this is the case, and IANAL, so I don't know this for sure, but I'm not certain that Nintendo is actually infringing on that patent. According to the Abstract, the patent specifies that the device transmits data via infrared to a receiver mounted somewhere. The Wiimote doesn't do that. It communicates button presses to the Wii through Bluetooth, and uses the sensor bar to transmit IR data to the Wiimote so it can determine it's own position in space.
Maybe someone with a little better understanding of patent law, and/or has time to read the patent can enlighten me?
No seriously. The gaming industry (in particular gaming machine manufacturers, i.e. slot machines) requires people good with statistics skills to determine if a new game idea is valid (read: will make them money over time). It may not be the most glamorous work, but it's necessary.
Another job one of my math professors in college had was essentially data analysis for a mining company. They would place sensors in the ground and take some sort of reading, returning a huge amount of data that needed to be analyzed. The analysis was done through various mathematical models that I have only the vaguest understanding of.
My best suggestion if you're worried about this stuff: talk to your professors. I would guess that at least a few of them have held jobs outside academia and could give you an idea of where you could work. Hopefully this at least gives you a place to start looking.
One of my first computer science/engineering courses used Lego Mindstorms for us to get in the habit of problem solving. My favorite project was one where we needed to make a line follower, and then we raced our creations against each other for the best times. That combined both hardware and software engineering concepts because we had to build the car to go fast, but also needed the software to tell the car what to do and not to screw up on us. We used that 'block language' that comes with the mindstorms for the programming. All in all it was one of the most enjoyable classes I had in college.
I'm just about to graduate from a Software Engineering program at a University and I can tell you, Visual Studio does make you soft. It's not so much about the programming; you're right, an IDE doesn't write code for you, but it does other things like automatically linking extra libraries you need, compiling all your files at the touch of a button. Having said that I think IDE's are very useful, but too many of my peers don't know how to write a Makefile, and don't know how to compile their projects from the command line; skills I have found very valuable (being a Linux junkie I've used emacs and gcc wherever possible, thus I've had to do that often).
My recommendation would be to teach the students the command-line methods for maybe the first two terms of their programming, and then introduce IDE's while having classes that sometimes require the use of the command line again. This way they know how to do both. All in all, it's not like it takes very long to learn either method anyway, so perhaps it's a pointless question to begin with.
Once Microsoft started making web-apps one of their core strategies, browser compatibility immediately came to the forefront. Why? Because they looked at the trends. Eventually, Joe Public will wonder why everyone is using that Firefox thing, and will want to know how they can use it. Microsoft can't sell web-apps effectively, especially to the consumer level, if IE is the only browser that supports them. They would be alienating a huge amount of potential customers (the Mac users, or Linux users, or just windows users tired of IE shooting themselves in the foot), and considering that group is only growing, they must have realized it's just a plain stupid move.
So in other words, they'll only cooperate insofar as it helps their web-app strategy. Will we see XUL in IE? Nope, because they won't be making anything with XUL, and thus it would only help the competition. There's the trick right there; find a way for microsoft to make money and you'll spur them into action every time.
I can relate somewhat to what the writer of the article is trying to say. The computer in the classroom (especially with internet access) is just a distraction. In my experience with my own laptop, it's often true. If I have the laptop out then I'm usually not paying all that much attention to the professor. When he's talking about ip packet fragmenting, I'm playing Earthbound, or just browsing the web. Here's the trick though, I'm not doing this in classes where I actually want to pay attention. My networks class for example, is an example of a class where I don't want to pay attention. The professor will go on and on about something not related to the course materials for the day, and I've had a fair amount of networking experience in high-school that whatever concepts he throws out I understand immediately, so the rest of the lecture ends up being pointless. In contrast, in my Senior project class we go over things that are new to me and are useful to me in a format I don't fall asleep right away. And it's not like the computer and internet in the classroom are just a distraction. I have used it to look up facts and extra information about the lecture before.
So is wifi ruining college? No more than any other service provided on campus. I can still shut down the laptop and not pay attention to the professor the old fashioned way, like reading a book, or sleeping. A boring professor is a boring professor whether there's wifi or not. It's my choice to use it knowing the consequences of my actions may lead to lower grades, and as long as I'm not disturbing or otherwise interfering with my classmates who actually want to pay attention, I don't see the problem.
If I were BCGI (and I'm certainly glad I'm not), I'd just cancel all service immediately. Screw paying extra money to Freedom Wireless or whomever. Setup a system to refund the money left on a phone, and just close doors. Leave a nice automated message saying basically, "We can't continue serving you because of a submarine patent lawsuit. If you'd like to make a complaint please call or write to..." and give the numbers for Freedom Wireless and the Patent Office/Supreme Court/Whoever in the government responsible for this bludner. The more public stink that can be made about this the better, as it increases the chance of some senator's daughter who just lost her pre-paid phone service because of this sort of BS.
I've been trying to decide which open source database to use for my upcoming senior project, MySQL or PostgreSQL. Thanks MySQL, for making my decision for me.
I'm seriously curious to know what exactly the higher-ups at MySQL were smoking when they agreed to something like this. MySQL really shot themselves in the foot by associating with SCO. Will any open source folks use MySQL after this?
The more I think about it, the less I think it's a good idea to let an average user use Linux. I get sick and tired of having to do tech support on windows, sure; but can you imagine listening to every inane question that a user would come up with?
"How do I play a quicktime file?"
"My friend just sent me this awesome.exe file I want to install, how do I do that?"
"How do I install Microsoft Office?"
"Is it ok if I delete the/usr folder?" (only applicable if you're dumb enough to give them root)
I'm sure the/. crowd could come up with more. My point is, the average user doesn't know how to use a computer, doesn't care they don't know how to use a computer, and won't learn a damn thing about a computer unless they're dragged kicking and screaming. Linux is ready for the desktop for the user who is not afraid to try to learn. For everyone else, Linux will never be ready, and I say let it stay that way.
It's not a funny joke because I will not be suprised if some Texas rep proposes something like this. Lay some of the blame on your lousy network admin who didn't bother diversifying your servers (different OSs where possible), firewalling them properly, and keeping them up to date. Lay some blame on the managers who refuse to give their employee's training in how to spot email viruses (not helpful in the case of Sasser, but relavant for the hundreds of other email viruses), and some for the employee's who don't take that training seriously. Lay the rest on the hacker who released that virus, but keep in mind most of the damage caused by that worm could have been mitigated by a competent network admin.
I recently finished William Gibson's Bridge Series and have been thinking, "Why can't I have a head mounted display like those eyephones for my laptop instead of a screen?"
The answer is of course, money, resolution and power. I did, however, find one HMD that looks like it has some potential. http://www.emagin.com/3dvisor/html/LearnMore.htm
800x600 resolution,relatively low power consumption (powered by the USB port), and relatively cheap (900 bucks, out of my range, but it's better than a lot of HMDs out there).
In some ways HMD's make more sense than standard LCD screens. OLED displays for both eyes would (I think) take less power than a full 12-17 inch LCD screen, plus give you better immersion with whatever you're doing (VR desktops anyone?). If they can get the resolution on these up to 1024x768, 24 bit color, and about 500 bucks, I won't be suprised if I start seeing them around in lieu of LCDs.
Whenever I find a song I like on the radio (not too often these days) and don't know the title I just memorize some of the lyrics and stick them in a google search later. I've had about 99% accuracy so far. The hard part, of course, is remembering the lyrics, which is where a piece of paper or a PDA is especially handy... Just don't write too much while driving, otherwise the only song you'll be thinking about is the jailhouse rock.
Really, Really not smart. Despite their intentions, people totally freak out about things like this. "You hacked our computers? OMG you must be terrorist/credit fraudster/." It doesn't matter how insecure the system is; if you get inside, people think you need to be punished. Depending on how far the school wants to take this, the kids might end up with this on a criminal record, and computer intrusion is (IIRC) a felony. If they wanted to get the problem fixed they should have sent an anonymous email or something saying where the hole is and how to fix it. The downside to that would be you don't get people freaked out and aware of the vulnerabilities that exist. I just hope it ends up ok for them cause this could follow them for the rest of their lives.
As long as they keep the non-graphical installation option available, I don't really give a rip about a graphical installer. I don't even know why I care about that, I just do. Maybe because it's what helps make Gentoo unique.
In any case, Gentoo is definately not for the timid user (i.e. n00b). There's just a lot more manual stuff you have to configure, which is fine with me, but not people who don't know anything about linux. I've been recommending ubuntu for the people who want to try linux but just don't have the skills.
And as far as optimizations not helping overall speed, I think that's wrong. I checked glxgears FPS for both Ubuntu and Gentoo, both with direct rendering enabled showed ~800 fps for Ubuntu and ~1700 for Gentoo (-march=pentium3 -Os). I wouldn't be suprised if I'm missing something in regards to that 'benchmark', but whatever.
...if the other solutions out there worked worth a damn. I'm sorry, but when a clueless user clicks a bad link in IE, they get about 10,000 pieces of spyware loaded on their machine, stuff you *can't* get rid of. This is the point at which the 'knowledgable' user (i.e. me) has to go reformat said machine. That's why I push other solutions, cause the defaults are worthless and harmful.
If you're into management, go for a buisness degree of some sort. If you want to work with hardware some, go for computer engineering. If you're looking at interface/graphics design, maybe an art degree. It really depends on what sort of projects you want to work on. If you're just in it for the money, the buisness degree is probably your best bet.
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Do you write drivers? Or do you need highly optimized algorithms? What about really low level firmware stuff?
In other words, yes, there are good reasons for knowing assembly. Whether or not you'll actually use it is another matter entirely. Just depends on what you're working on.
Actually I wouldn't be surprised if in about 10-15 years assembly programmers are in higher demand since none of the CS schools these days ever teach assembly anymore.
Might be better to assemble the ship in space, docked to the ISS or something. IIRC, the apollo lander and service module could fit in the space shuttle's cargo bay, and even if I have the dimensions horribly wrong, we could bring pieces along in multiple trips. The only problem I see is fuel, though maybe we could use solar sails or an ion drive to offset that. When the astronauts get back, they can just hitch a ride down on one of the shuttles. The other bonus is it'd be reusable, just refuel on another trip.
Seems like the more efficient method to me *shrug*
I'm with you. I used to try and get people to switch, but it's a waste of time. Most people can't stand to learn anything on their own and thus can't work with linux without someone holding their hand. Unless you're prepared to tutor someone permanently, there's no point in getting people to switch.
Given that what he was using was a different version, maybe the act of checking or unchecking the public folders subscribed and unsubscribed? Novell has a distinct lack of documentation for 2.8 easily available on their website (shame on you Novell), so it's difficult to confirm, but this would be a logical feature to have.
Regardless, even if it didn't work, couldn't he just downgrade to 2.6? Or maybe find an IRC channel the devs hang out in and ask them directly? How about documentation released with the binary?
I don't know, I get the feeling the 'quitter' tag is appropriate here.
How about Opera?
http://people.opera.com/howcome/2006/olpc/
I don't really have a desire to read through the entire patent to see if this is the case, and IANAL, so I don't know this for sure, but I'm not certain that Nintendo is actually infringing on that patent. According to the Abstract, the patent specifies that the device transmits data via infrared to a receiver mounted somewhere. The Wiimote doesn't do that. It communicates button presses to the Wii through Bluetooth, and uses the sensor bar to transmit IR data to the Wiimote so it can determine it's own position in space.
Maybe someone with a little better understanding of patent law, and/or has time to read the patent can enlighten me?
No seriously. The gaming industry (in particular gaming machine manufacturers, i.e. slot machines) requires people good with statistics skills to determine if a new game idea is valid (read: will make them money over time). It may not be the most glamorous work, but it's necessary.
Another job one of my math professors in college had was essentially data analysis for a mining company. They would place sensors in the ground and take some sort of reading, returning a huge amount of data that needed to be analyzed. The analysis was done through various mathematical models that I have only the vaguest understanding of.
My best suggestion if you're worried about this stuff: talk to your professors. I would guess that at least a few of them have held jobs outside academia and could give you an idea of where you could work. Hopefully this at least gives you a place to start looking.
Oregon Institute of Technology. Graduated about a month ago.
One of my first computer science/engineering courses used Lego Mindstorms for us to get in the habit of problem solving. My favorite project was one where we needed to make a line follower, and then we raced our creations against each other for the best times. That combined both hardware and software engineering concepts because we had to build the car to go fast, but also needed the software to tell the car what to do and not to screw up on us. We used that 'block language' that comes with the mindstorms for the programming. All in all it was one of the most enjoyable classes I had in college.
I'm just about to graduate from a Software Engineering program at a University and I can tell you, Visual Studio does make you soft. It's not so much about the programming; you're right, an IDE doesn't write code for you, but it does other things like automatically linking extra libraries you need, compiling all your files at the touch of a button. Having said that I think IDE's are very useful, but too many of my peers don't know how to write a Makefile, and don't know how to compile their projects from the command line; skills I have found very valuable (being a Linux junkie I've used emacs and gcc wherever possible, thus I've had to do that often). My recommendation would be to teach the students the command-line methods for maybe the first two terms of their programming, and then introduce IDE's while having classes that sometimes require the use of the command line again. This way they know how to do both. All in all, it's not like it takes very long to learn either method anyway, so perhaps it's a pointless question to begin with.
Once Microsoft started making web-apps one of their core strategies, browser compatibility immediately came to the forefront. Why? Because they looked at the trends. Eventually, Joe Public will wonder why everyone is using that Firefox thing, and will want to know how they can use it. Microsoft can't sell web-apps effectively, especially to the consumer level, if IE is the only browser that supports them. They would be alienating a huge amount of potential customers (the Mac users, or Linux users, or just windows users tired of IE shooting themselves in the foot), and considering that group is only growing, they must have realized it's just a plain stupid move.
So in other words, they'll only cooperate insofar as it helps their web-app strategy. Will we see XUL in IE? Nope, because they won't be making anything with XUL, and thus it would only help the competition. There's the trick right there; find a way for microsoft to make money and you'll spur them into action every time.
I can relate somewhat to what the writer of the article is trying to say. The computer in the classroom (especially with internet access) is just a distraction. In my experience with my own laptop, it's often true. If I have the laptop out then I'm usually not paying all that much attention to the professor. When he's talking about ip packet fragmenting, I'm playing Earthbound, or just browsing the web. Here's the trick though, I'm not doing this in classes where I actually want to pay attention. My networks class for example, is an example of a class where I don't want to pay attention. The professor will go on and on about something not related to the course materials for the day, and I've had a fair amount of networking experience in high-school that whatever concepts he throws out I understand immediately, so the rest of the lecture ends up being pointless. In contrast, in my Senior project class we go over things that are new to me and are useful to me in a format I don't fall asleep right away. And it's not like the computer and internet in the classroom are just a distraction. I have used it to look up facts and extra information about the lecture before.
So is wifi ruining college? No more than any other service provided on campus. I can still shut down the laptop and not pay attention to the professor the old fashioned way, like reading a book, or sleeping. A boring professor is a boring professor whether there's wifi or not. It's my choice to use it knowing the consequences of my actions may lead to lower grades, and as long as I'm not disturbing or otherwise interfering with my classmates who actually want to pay attention, I don't see the problem.
Can someone tell me why they have an insert statement on a page view?
I just can't see any good reason
If I were BCGI (and I'm certainly glad I'm not), I'd just cancel all service immediately. Screw paying extra money to Freedom Wireless or whomever. Setup a system to refund the money left on a phone, and just close doors. Leave a nice automated message saying basically, "We can't continue serving you because of a submarine patent lawsuit. If you'd like to make a complaint please call or write to..." and give the numbers for Freedom Wireless and the Patent Office/Supreme Court/Whoever in the government responsible for this bludner. The more public stink that can be made about this the better, as it increases the chance of some senator's daughter who just lost her pre-paid phone service because of this sort of BS.
I've been trying to decide which open source database to use for my upcoming senior project, MySQL or PostgreSQL. Thanks MySQL, for making my decision for me.
I'm seriously curious to know what exactly the higher-ups at MySQL were smoking when they agreed to something like this. MySQL really shot themselves in the foot by associating with SCO. Will any open source folks use MySQL after this?
The more I think about it, the less I think it's a good idea to let an average user use Linux. I get sick and tired of having to do tech support on windows, sure; but can you imagine listening to every inane question that a user would come up with?
.exe file I want to install, how do I do that?" /usr folder?" (only applicable if you're dumb enough to give them root)
/. crowd could come up with more. My point is, the average user doesn't know how to use a computer, doesn't care they don't know how to use a computer, and won't learn a damn thing about a computer unless they're dragged kicking and screaming. Linux is ready for the desktop for the user who is not afraid to try to learn. For everyone else, Linux will never be ready, and I say let it stay that way.
"How do I play a quicktime file?"
"My friend just sent me this awesome
"How do I install Microsoft Office?"
"Is it ok if I delete the
I'm sure the
It's not a funny joke because I will not be suprised if some Texas rep proposes something like this. Lay some of the blame on your lousy network admin who didn't bother diversifying your servers (different OSs where possible), firewalling them properly, and keeping them up to date. Lay some blame on the managers who refuse to give their employee's training in how to spot email viruses (not helpful in the case of Sasser, but relavant for the hundreds of other email viruses), and some for the employee's who don't take that training seriously. Lay the rest on the hacker who released that virus, but keep in mind most of the damage caused by that worm could have been mitigated by a competent network admin.
I recently finished William Gibson's Bridge Series and have been thinking, "Why can't I have a head mounted display like those eyephones for my laptop instead of a screen?"
The answer is of course, money, resolution and power. I did, however, find one HMD that looks like it has some potential. http://www.emagin.com/3dvisor/html/LearnMore.htm 800x600 resolution,relatively low power consumption (powered by the USB port), and relatively cheap (900 bucks, out of my range, but it's better than a lot of HMDs out there).
In some ways HMD's make more sense than standard LCD screens. OLED displays for both eyes would (I think) take less power than a full 12-17 inch LCD screen, plus give you better immersion with whatever you're doing (VR desktops anyone?). If they can get the resolution on these up to 1024x768, 24 bit color, and about 500 bucks, I won't be suprised if I start seeing them around in lieu of LCDs.
With a name like that, how can't it sell?
Whenever I find a song I like on the radio (not too often these days) and don't know the title I just memorize some of the lyrics and stick them in a google search later. I've had about 99% accuracy so far. The hard part, of course, is remembering the lyrics, which is where a piece of paper or a PDA is especially handy... Just don't write too much while driving, otherwise the only song you'll be thinking about is the jailhouse rock.
Really, Really not smart. Despite their intentions, people totally freak out about things like this. "You hacked our computers? OMG you must be terrorist/credit fraudster/." It doesn't matter how insecure the system is; if you get inside, people think you need to be punished. Depending on how far the school wants to take this, the kids might end up with this on a criminal record, and computer intrusion is (IIRC) a felony. If they wanted to get the problem fixed they should have sent an anonymous email or something saying where the hole is and how to fix it. The downside to that would be you don't get people freaked out and aware of the vulnerabilities that exist. I just hope it ends up ok for them cause this could follow them for the rest of their lives.
As long as they keep the non-graphical installation option available, I don't really give a rip about a graphical installer. I don't even know why I care about that, I just do. Maybe because it's what helps make Gentoo unique.
In any case, Gentoo is definately not for the timid user (i.e. n00b). There's just a lot more manual stuff you have to configure, which is fine with me, but not people who don't know anything about linux. I've been recommending ubuntu for the people who want to try linux but just don't have the skills.
And as far as optimizations not helping overall speed, I think that's wrong. I checked glxgears FPS for both Ubuntu and Gentoo, both with direct rendering enabled showed ~800 fps for Ubuntu and ~1700 for Gentoo (-march=pentium3 -Os). I wouldn't be suprised if I'm missing something in regards to that 'benchmark', but whatever.
...if the other solutions out there worked worth a damn. I'm sorry, but when a clueless user clicks a bad link in IE, they get about 10,000 pieces of spyware loaded on their machine, stuff you *can't* get rid of. This is the point at which the 'knowledgable' user (i.e. me) has to go reformat said machine. That's why I push other solutions, cause the defaults are worthless and harmful.
by the time IPv6 becomes used widespread the patent will have expired.
If you're into management, go for a buisness degree of some sort. If you want to work with hardware some, go for computer engineering. If you're looking at interface/graphics design, maybe an art degree. It really depends on what sort of projects you want to work on. If you're just in it for the money, the buisness degree is probably your best bet.