Nowadays, professional programmers who are working on performance-critial software tend to write first and optimize second (after they profile the code to determine where 'hotspots' are).
Unfortunately, in my experience, it's a case of "write first and never, ever optimize".
In the last two jobs I've seen the products we've produced to be quite sluggish, becuase of the fact that performance had zero priority (unless it was actually so slow that it was unusable).
Management say, it doesn't matter as long as it works. I'm afraid I don't agree with that opinion. Even if it does the job, it's a waste of the end-users time and creates a bad impression of the quality of your product.
Having said that I think the "optimise second" rule is one of the best rules in programing, as long as you don't take it as a blank cheque to not bother at all.
They obviously make the [incorrect] assumption that a) the internet is always working
b) that everyone is always connected
c) everyone has broadband
The advantages of pop mail is you can read and write your mail offline.
Enevitably, some report will appear in the papers saying the MSBlast worm caused $ X million worth of damage, but really we've been lucky so far with Malisa, Code red, Simba etc. None of them have had any serious payload. I think people forget the real harm that the virus author could have caused if he/she so wished (corrupting your data files, or formating your harddisk, for example).
I'm just waiting for somebody to make a virus that uses a hole that MS has yet to discover. In that case the only patch available will be to install Linux.;)
I think you should bare in mind that Windows XP is the 6th version of Microsoft GUI OSs which have been under development for over 10 years (Win31, Win95, Win98, WinNT, Win2000, WinXP). Now, call me old fashioned, but I think you should see progressive improvements in each version of a software product. Considering that KDE is only at version 2, XP should be a lot damn better. The article says that WinXP is only a small bit better.
The reason why we don't see the expected 10 years worth of functionality, is because of MS marketing droids dumping flashy features that actually make the UI less usable (for example, the fad-in menus and screen wasting fat titlebars). All novice uses I talked to hate the telly tubby user interface.
Maybe ISPs should change the broadband rating system, instead of kilobits per second, how about stolen revenue per second - e.g. I got a 1.7 srps connection, means I can download $1.70 dollers worth of illegal songs per second?
Instead of kilobits per second, how about they rate broadband connections at stolen revenue per second - i.e. I got a 1.7 srps connection, means I can download $1.70 dollers worth of illegal songs per second?
What we are seeing here are the death throes of a dinosaur. Companies that have been price fixing and charging exhorbant sums for CDs for decades are now about to have their hefty profit margins axed for good and these are their last, desperate measures to stop the irreversible tide
Just as a matter of interest is it just the Windows NT password which is unsafe. Did anyone find a way to crack Word passwords? I mean apart from the obvious brute force method?
MS has a very nice feature in Office XP that allows you to directly draw diagrams into e-mails and Word documents using the pen. This feature was developed specifically for use with the Tablet PC (though I think it would be useful for any PC with a pen and tablet). I would like to see this feature incorperated into non-MS software (such as Thunderbird for instance). Maybe with more features like this the Linux Tabler PC would be more attractive.
Section III.A. of the agreement prevents Microsoft from punishing OEMs if they promote an alternative OS. However according to the government monitor of MS's compliance (http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f201100/201135.htm ) they are allowed to delay this part of the agreement until their sales people are "trained". In other words, they are allowed to punished OEMs for promoting Linux until the training is finished.
This training has been going on for the last two years. The agreement itself only is enforced for 5 years, so only 3 more years left to string out that training....
According to that report MS has been completely compliant in implementing the OEM licensing terms. So why don't we see widespread availabilty of alternative OS's from the big OEMs?
There is a little discaimer at the end of that paragraph that seems to say that it hasn't been implemented yet because of the need to "train" OEM sales people, but this "training" has been going on for 2 years already.
Section III.A. prohibits Microsoft from retaliating or threatening to retaliate against an OEM because of an OEM's decision to distribute or otherwise to promote any software that competes with Microsoft Platform Software. Unlike Section III.B., which can be (and has been) implemented programmatically, compliance with Section III.A. can be achieved only through training and ongoing oversight of relevant Microsoft employees. Microsoft has conducted extensive mandatory training for its OEM Sales group personnel concerning Microsoft's obligations under the Final Judgments, with particular emphasis on Section III.A. and other OEM-related provisions. Since December 2001, Microsoft has trained its domestic OEM Sales personnel at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, and has trained its international OEM Sales personnel at regional training sessions held in Germany, Switzerland, Mexico and Japan. Training will continue to be an ongoing process, both via live training by Microsoft lawyers and senior OEM Sales group personnel and via online training tools that Microsoft has developed for this purpose. Microsoft's licensing and antitrust lawyers work directly with OEM Division personnel to address and resolve any ongoing questions.
I went to the HP website and see several configurations available - all WinXP, then I select "Customize>>"... I don't see where you can select Mandrake (and save $100). The only thing I can change is the Monitor, warrenty and speakers.
Exactly what is the market for a Laptop like this?
how about, people who have to use badly designed applications, written by programmers that have 17" monitors and didn't bother to check if it was usable with a 1024x768 resolution.:(
I'm working in a company with many developers and coding guidelines and I can tell you there is no peer review of anyones code, mainly because nobody has any time to review thousands of lines of code when each of us is busy with our own modules. Only the end result is reviewed and tested.
And I seriously doubt any boss figure would look at any code, even if he was a programmer type.
I don't like to criticize Mozilla but they seem to be more concerned in adding flashy cool features like theme handling and smooth scrolling, rather than features that actually provide useful functionality like, for instance, a context menu item to copy images to the clipboard, or flash blocking.
Yes, I noticed since I upgraded from WinNT to WinXP, the file system seems to be much slower. When you open a folder in Windows Explorer it takes a second or two while in WinNT it was instantaneous. I tried tweeking it (removing indexing service, etc.) to no avail. The fact that I have SCSI drives makes me think that this might be what's causing it
If you look at the Lindows website, you will see that the only places that they have an agreement with OEMs are in USA, Canada and Israel.
Although Linux PCs are available in Europe, you won't find a 200 Euro model available. Invariable the best value (price/performance) on the market comes with Windows XP.
They're not scared. It's just that the Bush administration has a policy of leaving MS continue their business practises as they wish, hoping that this will somehow help the economy.
Yes, but the bulk of the R&D effort that MS spent is writing the code. The companies that want to license it only want to look at the code to discover how the protocol works. It's not like that they will be able to use the code as is becuase they are developing for a non-MS platform, they're probably going to have to re-write it from scratch. In my opinion the specification of protocols should be free.
It's nice to have a faster boot-up time. Unfortunately once you are booted-up you will find the file system performs like a snail in comparison to Windows NT. Opening a folder in Windows XP takes ages. In Windows NT it was instantanous. And browsing through the file system is the thing that you do most often. Booting up only happens once.
No. To be an addict simply means that you are unable to give it up. You can drink heavily without necessarily being addicted. I've heard of a case of a guy who used to drink a bottle of whiskey every weekend, but then one day decided it was costing him too much money and just gave it up like that.
If you look at the Lindows website, you will see that the only places that they have an agreement with OEMs are in USA, Canada and Israel.
When will us Europeans be able to buy cheap PCs? The best value for money PCs here always come with the MS tax.:(
In the artical he asks:
if TigerDirect is functioning as an OEM, shouldn't they be bound by the uniform licensing agreement that Microsoft is supposed to have with its partners?
The answer could be that the "uniform licensing agreement" only applies to the biggest OEMs (the top ten as I remember??). Even if it were one of the big OEMs MS can easily get around it by offering "market development funds" to the OEMs that don't offer Linux.
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Nowadays, professional programmers who are working on performance-critial software tend to write first and optimize second (after they profile the code to determine where 'hotspots' are). Unfortunately, in my experience, it's a case of "write first and never, ever optimize". In the last two jobs I've seen the products we've produced to be quite sluggish, becuase of the fact that performance had zero priority (unless it was actually so slow that it was unusable). Management say, it doesn't matter as long as it works. I'm afraid I don't agree with that opinion. Even if it does the job, it's a waste of the end-users time and creates a bad impression of the quality of your product. Having said that I think the "optimise second" rule is one of the best rules in programing, as long as you don't take it as a blank cheque to not bother at all.
They obviously make the [incorrect] assumption that a) the internet is always working b) that everyone is always connected c) everyone has broadband The advantages of pop mail is you can read and write your mail offline.
Enevitably, some report will appear in the papers saying the MSBlast worm caused $ X million worth of damage, but really we've been lucky so far with Malisa, Code red, Simba etc. None of them have had any serious payload. I think people forget the real harm that the virus author could have caused if he/she so wished (corrupting your data files, or formating your harddisk, for example).
I'm just waiting for somebody to make a virus that uses a hole that MS has yet to discover. In that case the only patch available will be to install Linux.;)
I think you should bare in mind that Windows XP is the 6th version of Microsoft GUI OSs which have been under development for over 10 years (Win31, Win95, Win98, WinNT, Win2000, WinXP). Now, call me old fashioned, but I think you should see progressive improvements in each version of a software product. Considering that KDE is only at version 2, XP should be a lot damn better. The article says that WinXP is only a small bit better. The reason why we don't see the expected 10 years worth of functionality, is because of MS marketing droids dumping flashy features that actually make the UI less usable (for example, the fad-in menus and screen wasting fat titlebars). All novice uses I talked to hate the telly tubby user interface.
Maybe ISPs should change the broadband rating system, instead of kilobits per second, how about stolen revenue per second - e.g. I got a 1.7 srps connection, means I can download $1.70 dollers worth of illegal songs per second?
Instead of kilobits per second, how about they rate broadband connections at stolen revenue per second - i.e. I got a 1.7 srps connection, means I can download $1.70 dollers worth of illegal songs per second?
What we are seeing here are the death throes of a dinosaur. Companies that have been price fixing and charging exhorbant sums for CDs for decades are now about to have their hefty profit margins axed for good and these are their last, desperate measures to stop the irreversible tide
Just as a matter of interest is it just the Windows NT password which is unsafe. Did anyone find a way to crack Word passwords? I mean apart from the obvious brute force method?
MS has a very nice feature in Office XP that allows you to directly draw diagrams into e-mails and Word documents using the pen. This feature was developed specifically for use with the Tablet PC (though I think it would be useful for any PC with a pen and tablet). I would like to see this feature incorperated into non-MS software (such as Thunderbird for instance). Maybe with more features like this the Linux Tabler PC would be more attractive.
Section III.A. of the agreement prevents Microsoft from punishing OEMs if they promote an alternative OS. However according to the government monitor of MS's compliance (http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f201100/201135.htm ) they are allowed to delay this part of the agreement until their sales people are "trained". In other words, they are allowed to punished OEMs for promoting Linux until the training is finished.
This training has been going on for the last two years. The agreement itself only is enforced for 5 years, so only 3 more years left to string out that training....
Section III.A. prohibits Microsoft from retaliating or threatening to retaliate against an OEM because of an OEM's decision to distribute or otherwise to promote any software that competes with Microsoft Platform Software. Unlike Section III.B., which can be (and has been) implemented programmatically, compliance with Section III.A. can be achieved only through training and ongoing oversight of relevant Microsoft employees. Microsoft has conducted extensive mandatory training for its OEM Sales group personnel concerning Microsoft's obligations under the Final Judgments, with particular emphasis on Section III.A. and other OEM-related provisions. Since December 2001, Microsoft has trained its domestic OEM Sales personnel at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, and has trained its international OEM Sales personnel at regional training sessions held in Germany, Switzerland, Mexico and Japan. Training will continue to be an ongoing process, both via live training by Microsoft lawyers and senior OEM Sales group personnel and via online training tools that Microsoft has developed for this purpose. Microsoft's licensing and antitrust lawyers work directly with OEM Division personnel to address and resolve any ongoing questions.
I went to the HP website and see several configurations available - all WinXP, then I select "Customize>>"... I don't see where you can select Mandrake (and save $100). The only thing I can change is the Monitor, warrenty and speakers.
Exactly what is the market for a Laptop like this? how about, people who have to use badly designed applications, written by programmers that have 17" monitors and didn't bother to check if it was usable with a 1024x768 resolution. :(
I'm working in a company with many developers and coding guidelines and I can tell you there is no peer review of anyones code, mainly because nobody has any time to review thousands of lines of code when each of us is busy with our own modules. Only the end result is reviewed and tested. And I seriously doubt any boss figure would look at any code, even if he was a programmer type.
I don't like to criticize Mozilla but they seem to be more concerned in adding flashy cool features like theme handling and smooth scrolling, rather than features that actually provide useful functionality like, for instance, a context menu item to copy images to the clipboard, or flash blocking.
Yes, I noticed since I upgraded from WinNT to WinXP, the file system seems to be much slower. When you open a folder in Windows Explorer it takes a second or two while in WinNT it was instantaneous. I tried tweeking it (removing indexing service, etc.) to no avail. The fact that I have SCSI drives makes me think that this might be what's causing it
If you look at the Lindows website, you will see that the only places that they have an agreement with OEMs are in USA, Canada and Israel. Although Linux PCs are available in Europe, you won't find a 200 Euro model available. Invariable the best value (price/performance) on the market comes with Windows XP.
They're not scared. It's just that the Bush administration has a policy of leaving MS continue their business practises as they wish, hoping that this will somehow help the economy.
Yes, but the bulk of the R&D effort that MS spent is writing the code. The companies that want to license it only want to look at the code to discover how the protocol works. It's not like that they will be able to use the code as is becuase they are developing for a non-MS platform, they're probably going to have to re-write it from scratch. In my opinion the specification of protocols should be free.
It's nice to have a faster boot-up time. Unfortunately once you are booted-up you will find the file system performs like a snail in comparison to Windows NT. Opening a folder in Windows XP takes ages. In Windows NT it was instantanous. And browsing through the file system is the thing that you do most often. Booting up only happens once.
No. To be an addict simply means that you are unable to give it up. You can drink heavily without necessarily being addicted. I've heard of a case of a guy who used to drink a bottle of whiskey every weekend, but then one day decided it was costing him too much money and just gave it up like that.
If you look at the Lindows website, you will see that the only places that they have an agreement with OEMs are in USA, Canada and Israel. :(
When will us Europeans be able to buy cheap PCs? The best value for money PCs here always come with the MS tax.
In the artical he asks: if TigerDirect is functioning as an OEM, shouldn't they be bound by the uniform licensing agreement that Microsoft is supposed to have with its partners?
The answer could be that the "uniform licensing agreement" only applies to the biggest OEMs (the top ten as I remember??). Even if it were one of the big OEMs MS can easily get around it by offering "market development funds" to the OEMs that don't offer Linux.
Just as a matter of intrest, how do you do that? Is there a option that you can add to your user.js? Thanks, Ed