I used to believe the axiom "You get what you pay for" but the equally true Caviat Emptor should be remembered at all times because some companies will just gouge you, and my experience is that Sony is one of the worst.
Case Study #1
About 7 years ago my dad and I bought a Sony 5 disk cd player for my mom which cost about $300.
The same year I bought myself an RCA 5 disk player for less than half the price ($140). The RCA has comparable features, and if there is a differnce in sound quality then I can't hear it.
The LED display on the expensive Sony failed about a year ago and is now a pain in the ass to use, my cheap RCA has endured much heavier usage and is still going strong.
I have no idea why people think sony is so hot. Some of my electronic purchases have lasted for years (and decades even) but others fail within a couple years. Virtually every electronic failure I have experienced has been a Sony including a Car Stereo, a "Ghetto Blaster", and the above mentioned cd player.
OK, assuming you are not trolling here with the MS comments and this is an earnest question.
The general message here if you want a custom system then don't buy from the big manufactures like dell or compaq. Not that there is anything wrong with those companies but they are in the business of bulk sales and are not interested in creating custom systems.
It sounds like you want to "Build your own computer" system, know exactly what you want but don't want to risk messing the hardware up by putting it together yourself.
I am willing to bet that somewhere in your neighboorhood there is a small computer shop that can meet your needs. Most of these local shops build computers the way Subway builds sandwiches. . . You tell the guy behind the counter what you want and he builds it for you the way you want it.
As an added bonus, if you buy a custom system from the computer shop around the corner then you don't have far to go if a piece of hardware breaks down.
Before buying from Dell I strongly recommend you check out your local dealer and purchase a generic system with name brand parts rather than a name brand system with no-name parts. You might be surprised how much money you can save, and the quality of system you will get by buying local.
PS I don't sell hardware but as the tech support guy within my circle of friends I have purchased and fixed a lot of systems.
And NO, I don't really think Linux is ready for that sort of thing. Hrrmmm... mabye QNX?
If you had said that there isn't a "Linux Distribution" out there that is ready for an atm application I would whole heartedly agree. However Linux as a kernal and a few basic tools seems well suited for this task.
An ATM is basically a dumb terminal connected to a bank's private network and would not need most of the tools and apps that come with any other operating system. The ATM functions a very specialized task. Solaris, Windows, or any Linux Distro would be overkill in this application. But the beauty of the GNU system is that banks are not tied to what is commercially available. . . they can build thier own system, based on the code that has proven to be stable and secure but is completely stripped down to the bare essentials and every line of code could be available for their IT auditors. And simple systems are easier to administer.
Am I missing something here? Why wouldn't GNU/Linux be a good code base from which banks could build a system?
Or. . . the rise of Linux has positively affected peoples' perception of OSX. One of the big selling points of OS X is the bsd unix back end. In the last couple years newspapers and other media have done a good job educating users about the security and stability of *nix.
TUTOS might be a good contact manager for your sales team, and project planner for the programmers. It is a web-app (PHP-MySQL) so it will immediatly solve any cross platform issues. (Do you all use mac's) Plus when your sales guys are on the road they can access info over the web, and if you have progammers who work from home then they can use it to update a projects status and submit billable hours.
I understand that JBuilder can be expensive for a small company but it is worth the money. I use a mac here at work, but have a linux, and windows machine at home. JBuilder works on all three platforms.
It sounds Simonyi has an idea that could be comlimentary to Microsoft's goals He wants to develop a new revolutionary improvement to programming and good programming tools help sell operating systems. The huge number of programs that run on the Windows is probably Microsoft's most significant advantage over Linux, and MacOS (for now anyway).
A visual method of coding data structures, sockets, buisiness rules etc could do for programming what RAD tools did for GUI development. RAD tools enabled someone with very little programming abilitity to build useful programs.
If his ideas are a real success Microsoft might try to buy out Simonyi's company and reintegrate it with the Visual Studio family in the future.
Most 35mm cameras use a ratio of 4x6 so 11 Megapixels roughly translates to
2708 pixels x 4062 pixels.
To print an 8"x10" picture with this resolution would require a printer capable of at least (2708 dots / 8 inches) 338 dots per inch which any new inkjet can do.
So the next question might be: Can a human eye detect the difference between a 5 megapixel and an 11 megapixel image once it is printed?
Again I would have to say yes.
As your resolution decreases the contrast increases.
In the real world that means if you try to enlarge and print out a low resolution image the final print will have poor contrast. Areas that should be light gray will look white, and your girlfriend's navy blue dress will look black.
Marketing guy: - We want to store a permanent cookie on the users machines so they don't need to enter their passwords every time they come to the machine (for a web based accounting application).
Programmer: That would be very insecure. Anybody could view the information stored on this system.
Marketing guy: - The client wants it.
Programmer: Has the client been informed of the potential risks? They might not want this feature if they understood the ramifications.
There are 196 lakes within 2 hours north, and east of my home. Getting out into nature is my idea fun. Rafting, camping, hiking, kyaking, even just rollerblading 'round the neighbourhood.
Sketching with graphite, charcoal, and chalk pastel is another good way to relax and loose track of time.
Now that you have brought up the topic I have to ask myself, "why I am sitting in a dark room posting platitudes to slashdot while the sun is shining outside?" I'm logging off, see y'all tommorow.
Nope. The next big wars will be fought over *water*, one of the most common substances on the planet
And with 1/5 of the world's fresh water Canada will be the grand prize. However the battle will not be fought with guns, or planes but in court with lawyers, and trade tariffs. The losers will be hundreds of thousands of species whose habitats are damaged when watersheds are diverted from their natural course.
The article mentions Viso, and rational rose both of which are expensive windows programs. So does that mean cash strapped geeks are forced to use a windows box, download a crack and use that? No. There are good alternatives that are free and don't need windows. The first one that comes to mind is Gnome's DIA.
To quote Gnomes web site "DIA is a drawing program, designed to be much like the commercial Windows program 'Visio'. It can be used to draw various different kinds of diagrams. In this first version there is support for UML static structure diagrams (class diagrams), databases, circuit objects, flowcharts, network diagrams and more."
Another option is Argo UML which is also free and programmed in java Argo
If you build a piece of software that is going to be used by many of a company's workers they will need support.
While programming out of your basement you might be able to develop something better than all the competetion. Maybe your insight into the problem is better than anyone else; and your coding techniques are superior. In short your software is the best in the world in it's class. But no matter what you price it you won't sell a single copy.
I've seen that scenario before with a business aquaintance. He added a zero to the price he was charging. From about $3,000 to $30,000 per site.
At this much higher price point he was able to rent an office, and hire a staff to support his product and that's what his customers needed. After the price increase his sales went from less than $10,000 in the first two years to over $300,000 int the third, and growing.
Sure imap and web browsing are neat tools for sales guys but what I really want is a way to login analyze and fix a problem with a server from anywhere.
The scenareio would go something like this:
Use remote server monitoring software to check on my server.
If a problem occurs an email is sent to my palm pilot account.
Using the same palm pilot I can login and fix what is wrong.
Now that would be cool. (Except if my company expects me to carry it on holidays).
Wow. That was the kind of statement you expect from somebody who knows only one computer language well. If the writer had even picked up Java for Dummies he would have learned that Java is not 100% objects and does have native data-types like int, long, char boolean which are totally separate from the similar objects Integer, Character, Boolean.
Java biggots are equally bad when bashing C++, and everybody here likes to dump on VB.
Introductory programming books usually start by explaining the benefits of the language, and all too often these books use comparative terms like " Java is better than C++ because Java doesn't use those complicated, ugly, pointer thinggys that are too complicated for anybody to user correctly anyway". So the new Java student goes off into the world telling all his friends that Java is better because it doesn't have pointers. Of course he would be wrong on many counts with that statement. If he really understood pointers he would know they are essential to efficient programming and even Java uses them in an indirect way.
I would like to suggest that people on Slashdot should only be allowed to criticize a language if they understand it themselves.
We have an office of 6 guys, and a mixture of Linux, Macs,and Windows boxes.
If (when) a Windows operating system crashes so badly that the whole OS needs to be re-installed the e-mail is often lost. Outlook Express seems to store it's data somewhere deep in the windows system folder on Win9x machines.
I'd like to find some way to set up a server that periodically checks the pop accounts at our ISP saves the new messages on the local server then we could each connect to the local server using our preferred email client and retrieve our messages.
I have searched the web and bought an OReilly book on setting up IMAP servers but everything I have read about IMAP makes the assumtion that the server will sit somewhere on the internet at a known addreess with a valid dns name however I would like something that can sit in our office behind the firewall.
We started our company as a partnership. Two programmers and a guy with lots of charisma and sales ability. When the time came to expand and hire another programmer our sales guy handled it.
After a hundred or so resumes and about 20 interviews he found the perfect fit for our company. The prospect was into snowboarding, rollerblading, ultimate frisbee, and had cool taste in music. However after I asked a few (barely) technical questions it became clear that he couldn't code himself out of a wet paper bag.
My one piece of advice is to be aware of the people whose only experience is a 6 month course. Good programmers whether self taught, or formally trained have honed their skills over time and all good programmers have some sort of portfolio of code they have written. Even if it is a school project.
Even if Dell sold the system with Linux installed corportions in your scenario might like it even less.
Last time I tried to install Win2000 on a hard drive that was partitioned for Linux the install failed unceremoniously. I had to reboot, and repartition the drive, then boot again with the Win2k install cd.
My Mandrake install had three disks, and everything you need for an OS is on the first disk.
The other two disks are applications and games.
To me the the real difference is how often you need to reinstall. Over time windows systems aquire junk in the registry, and c:\windows\system and this junk slows the computer down. Often the only way to reclaim your computing speed is to reinstall windows. And the two hours that Joe Bar reported is nothing. That doesn't include the lost time for all the settings in your development environment and lost styles, in Word etc.
Radio Shack sells a package with a RF transmitter and receiver for $24.99 USD when the transmitter is toggled into the on position the receiver can turn on any device plugged into a wall outlet. This can be anything that makes a lot of noise. Personally I would plug in a tape of Carmina Burana (sp?) or some other loud classical music which is guaranteed to get the husband's attention but is not as anoying as a buzzer or alarm.
The beauty of this solution is that it is RF, and not infrared so the receiver has a greater range and does not need to be line of sight. In other words the alarm can be in the living room, and the transmitter in the bedroom.
The second part of this problem is that the little transmitter is probably too small to be useful for your friend. However I am sure any 12 year old with a screw driver, wires and a small solder iron could jury-rig a new, bigger, switch that works with the existing transmitter.
Slashdot Mirror
I used to believe the axiom "You get what you pay for" but the equally true Caviat Emptor should be remembered at all times because some companies will just gouge you, and my experience is that Sony is one of the worst.
Case Study #1
About 7 years ago my dad and I bought a Sony 5 disk cd player for my mom which cost about $300.
The same year I bought myself an RCA 5 disk player for less than half the price ($140). The RCA has comparable features, and if there is a differnce in sound quality then I can't hear it.
The LED display on the expensive Sony failed about a year ago and is now a pain in the ass to use, my cheap RCA has endured much heavier usage and is still going strong.
I have no idea why people think sony is so hot. Some of my electronic purchases have lasted for years (and decades even) but others fail within a couple years. Virtually every electronic failure I have experienced has been a Sony including a Car Stereo, a "Ghetto Blaster", and the above mentioned cd player.
OK, assuming you are not trolling here with the MS comments and this is an earnest question.
The general message here if you want a custom system then don't buy from the big manufactures like dell or compaq. Not that there is anything wrong with those companies but they are in the business of bulk sales and are not interested in creating custom systems.
It sounds like you want to "Build your own computer" system, know exactly what you want but don't want to risk messing the hardware up by putting it together yourself.
I am willing to bet that somewhere in your neighboorhood there is a small computer shop that can meet your needs. Most of these local shops build computers the way Subway builds sandwiches. . . You tell the guy behind the counter what you want and he builds it for you the way you want it.
As an added bonus, if you buy a custom system from the computer shop around the corner then you don't have far to go if a piece of hardware breaks down.
Before buying from Dell I strongly recommend you check out your local dealer and purchase a generic system with name brand parts rather than a name brand system with no-name parts. You might be surprised how much money you can save, and the quality of system you will get by buying local.
PS I don't sell hardware but as the tech support guy within my circle of friends I have purchased and fixed a lot of systems.
If you had said that there isn't a "Linux Distribution" out there that is ready for an atm application I would whole heartedly agree. However Linux as a kernal and a few basic tools seems well suited for this task.
An ATM is basically a dumb terminal connected to a bank's private network and would not need most of the tools and apps that come with any other operating system. The ATM functions a very specialized task. Solaris, Windows, or any Linux Distro would be overkill in this application. But the beauty of the GNU system is that banks are not tied to what is commercially available. . . they can build thier own system, based on the code that has proven to be stable and secure but is completely stripped down to the bare essentials and every line of code could be available for their IT auditors. And simple systems are easier to administer.
Am I missing something here? Why wouldn't GNU/Linux be a good code base from which banks could build a system?
A) This is not open source you're talking about at all.
What the poster suggested is Open Source.
It is not free software because the source code comes with copyright restrictions.
For those people I am their first, last, and only source of technical information. If you read slashdot daily you can guarantee two things:
Linux hasn't affected development.
Or. . . the rise of Linux has positively affected peoples' perception of OSX. One of the big selling points of OS X is the bsd unix back end. In the last couple years newspapers and other media have done a good job educating users about the security and stability of *nix.
TUTOS might be a good contact manager for your sales team, and project planner for the programmers. It is a web-app (PHP-MySQL) so it will immediatly solve any cross platform issues. (Do you all use mac's) Plus when your sales guys are on the road they can access info over the web, and if you have progammers who work from home then they can use it to update a projects status and submit billable hours.
I understand that JBuilder can be expensive for a small company but it is worth the money. I use a mac here at work, but have a linux, and windows machine at home. JBuilder works on all three platforms.
It sounds Simonyi has an idea that could be comlimentary to Microsoft's goals He wants to develop a new revolutionary improvement to programming and good programming tools help sell operating systems. The huge number of programs that run on the Windows is probably Microsoft's most significant advantage over Linux, and MacOS (for now anyway).
A visual method of coding data structures, sockets, buisiness rules etc could do for programming what RAD tools did for GUI development. RAD tools enabled someone with very little programming abilitity to build useful programs.
If his ideas are a real success Microsoft might try to buy out Simonyi's company and reintegrate it with the Visual Studio family in the future.
Most 35mm cameras use a ratio of 4x6 so 11 Megapixels roughly translates to
2708 pixels x 4062 pixels.
To print an 8"x10" picture with this resolution would require a printer capable of at least (2708 dots / 8 inches) 338 dots per inch which any new inkjet can do.
So the next question might be: Can a human eye detect the difference between a 5 megapixel and an 11 megapixel image once it is printed?
Again I would have to say yes.
As your resolution decreases the contrast increases.
In the real world that means if you try to enlarge and print out a low resolution image the final print will have poor contrast. Areas that should be light gray will look white, and your girlfriend's navy blue dress will look black.
Marketing guy: - We want to store a permanent cookie on the users machines so they don't need to enter their passwords every time they come to the machine (for a web based accounting application).
Programmer: That would be very insecure. Anybody could view the information stored on this system.
Marketing guy: - The client wants it.
Programmer: Has the client been informed of the potential risks? They might not want this feature if they understood the ramifications.
Marketing guy: (who has seniority) Just do it.
There are 196 lakes within 2 hours north, and east of my home. Getting out into nature is my idea fun. Rafting, camping, hiking, kyaking, even just rollerblading 'round the neighbourhood.
Sketching with graphite, charcoal, and chalk pastel is another good way to relax and loose track of time.
Now that you have brought up the topic I have to ask myself, "why I am sitting in a dark room posting platitudes to slashdot while the sun is shining outside?" I'm logging off, see y'all tommorow.
<Offtopic_LeftWingRant>
Nope. The next big wars will be fought over *water*, one of the most common substances on the planet
And with 1/5 of the world's fresh water Canada will be the grand prize. However the battle will not be fought with guns, or planes but in court with lawyers, and trade tariffs. The losers will be hundreds of thousands of species whose habitats are damaged when watersheds are diverted from their natural course.
</Offtopic_LeftWingRant>
The article mentions Viso, and rational rose both of which are expensive windows programs. So does that mean cash strapped geeks are forced to use a windows box, download a crack and use that? No. There are good alternatives that are free and don't need windows. The first one that comes to mind is Gnome's DIA.
To quote Gnomes web site "DIA is a drawing program, designed to be much like the commercial Windows program 'Visio'. It can be used to draw various different kinds of diagrams. In this first version there is support for UML static structure diagrams (class diagrams), databases, circuit objects, flowcharts, network diagrams and more."
Another option is Argo UML which is also free and programmed in java Argo
If you build a piece of software that is going to be used by many of a company's workers they will need support.
While programming out of your basement you might be able to develop something better than all the competetion. Maybe your insight into the problem is better than anyone else; and your coding techniques are superior. In short your software is the best in the world in it's class. But no matter what you price it you won't sell a single copy.
I've seen that scenario before with a business aquaintance. He added a zero to the price he was charging. From about $3,000 to $30,000 per site.
At this much higher price point he was able to rent an office, and hire a staff to support his product and that's what his customers needed. After the price increase his sales went from less than $10,000 in the first two years to over $300,000 int the third, and growing.
Sure imap and web browsing are neat tools for sales guys but what I really want is a way to login analyze and fix a problem with a server from anywhere.
The scenareio would go something like this:
Use remote server monitoring software to check on my server.
- If a problem occurs an email is sent to my palm pilot account.
- Using the same palm pilot I can login and fix what is wrong.
Now that would be cool. (Except if my company expects me to carry it on holidays).Wow. That was the kind of statement you expect from somebody who knows only one computer language well. If the writer had even picked up Java for Dummies he would have learned that Java is not 100% objects and does have native data-types like int, long, char boolean which are totally separate from the similar objects Integer, Character, Boolean.
Java biggots are equally bad when bashing C++, and everybody here likes to dump on VB.
Introductory programming books usually start by explaining the benefits of the language, and all too often these books use comparative terms like " Java is better than C++ because Java doesn't use those complicated, ugly, pointer thinggys that are too complicated for anybody to user correctly anyway". So the new Java student goes off into the world telling all his friends that Java is better because it doesn't have pointers. Of course he would be wrong on many counts with that statement. If he really understood pointers he would know they are essential to efficient programming and even Java uses them in an indirect way.
I would like to suggest that people on Slashdot should only be allowed to criticize a language if they understand it themselves.
We have an office of 6 guys, and a mixture of Linux, Macs,and Windows boxes.
If (when) a Windows operating system crashes so badly that the whole OS needs to be re-installed the e-mail is often lost. Outlook Express seems to store it's data somewhere deep in the windows system folder on Win9x machines.
I'd like to find some way to set up a server that periodically checks the pop accounts at our ISP saves the new messages on the local server then we could each connect to the local server using our preferred email client and retrieve our messages.
I have searched the web and bought an OReilly book on setting up IMAP servers but everything I have read about IMAP makes the assumtion that the server will sit somewhere on the internet at a known addreess with a valid dns name however I would like something that can sit in our office behind the firewall.
Any ideas on how to proceed?
We started our company as a partnership. Two programmers and a guy with lots of charisma and sales ability. When the time came to expand and hire another programmer our sales guy handled it.
After a hundred or so resumes and about 20 interviews he found the perfect fit for our company. The prospect was into snowboarding, rollerblading, ultimate frisbee, and had cool taste in music. However after I asked a few (barely) technical questions it became clear that he couldn't code himself out of a wet paper bag.
My one piece of advice is to be aware of the people whose only experience is a 6 month course. Good programmers whether self taught, or formally trained have honed their skills over time and all good programmers have some sort of portfolio of code they have written. Even if it is a school project.
Even if Dell sold the system with Linux installed corportions in your scenario might like it even less.
Last time I tried to install Win2000 on a hard drive that was partitioned for Linux the install failed unceremoniously. I had to reboot, and repartition the drive, then boot again with the Win2k install cd.
My Mandrake install had three disks, and everything you need for an OS is on the first disk.
The other two disks are applications and games.
To me the the real difference is how often you need to reinstall. Over time windows systems aquire junk in the registry, and c:\windows\system and this junk slows the computer down. Often the only way to reclaim your computing speed is to reinstall windows. And the two hours that Joe Bar reported is nothing. That doesn't include the lost time for all the settings in your development environment and lost styles, in Word etc.
Radio Shack sells a package with a RF transmitter and receiver for $24.99 USD when the transmitter is toggled into the on position the receiver can turn on any device plugged into a wall outlet. This can be anything that makes a lot of noise. Personally I would plug in a tape of Carmina Burana (sp?) or some other loud classical music which is guaranteed to get the husband's attention but is not as anoying as a buzzer or alarm.
The beauty of this solution is that it is RF, and not infrared so the receiver has a greater range and does not need to be line of sight. In other words the alarm can be in the living room, and the transmitter in the bedroom.
The second part of this problem is that the little transmitter is probably too small to be useful for your friend. However I am sure any 12 year old with a screw driver, wires and a small solder iron could jury-rig a new, bigger, switch that works with the existing transmitter.
Hope this helps.
Don't go cheap just to save 10 bucks.
Most people don't use floppies but when you do it is because you have to.
For example your mom's win98 box has crashed and an emergency boot floppy might help.