Compare function/feature/disk footprint/performance of Firebird and IE.
A well architected application can be optimized later as Firebird was and the efforts continue. Kudos to the Mozilla gang.
BTW - This is not intended to start a browser war thread so don't go there.
There are good reasons to get software out quickly, and waiting for the last bit of optimization my not be market efficient (missed sales opportunities). However, an awareness of scalability and performance should be included in design decisions made so that a system does not collapse under its own weight. When compromises are made there should be enough awareness that the team can go back and do some refactoring later to tidy things up...at least along the critical use case scenarios.
After all the rancor over the last few years the wording of the press release is so mechical...I wonder if you can see Scott McNealy's new borg implant blinking in the video coverage.
There is an art to design...which is why it is usually in the art departments at most universities!
Setting aside the silliness of fashion, elegant designs (lamps, home furnishings, clothes...) generally cost more than their K-mart alternatives. This is very true in architecture (which is probably the closest physical analogy to SW interfaces. There are builders tossing up 3600 sq ft barns for $140/sq ft. The damn houses have crummy flow, light switches in the wrong place, plumbing running down exterior walls so pipes freeze, messed up rooflines etc. It takes time, talent and forethought to design something well.
Since much of open source is developed to satisfy the intellectual/academic interests of the development team, they often forget that someone else may want to play with their toys. I am sure there are many exceptions to this and these are generalizations, but that's my 3 cents
I worked at Boeing until 1995. There are lots of things you can do to "soften" the boom (make the N-Wave less abrupt), but physics dictates there will be an over-pressure followed by under pressure. Think of the column of air as a structure supporting the airplane (~500,000lbs). For a subsonic airplane that structure can be very broad and spread out to the sides and in front of the airplane...so the 500,000 lbs of pressure is spread out over a VERY large area. So you don't sense or feel the over pressure. Now when going supersonically that column of air holding up the airplane is swept back behind it. Or from the ground perspective, the airplane is cantilevered on MILES forward of the "arm" of air holding it up. Now that column of air has to support both the weight of the airplane (500,000 lbs) plus a huge moment. The general form of this wave is an "N". The boom passing over a house has two parts, the over pressure of the front side followed by the under pressure (approximately the length of the vehicle) shortly after. It really rocks the house of the over pressure is on the backside when the under pressure gets to the front.
Additional challenges arise from atmospheric effects (e.g. the wave propogating above the airplane bouncing off the upper atmosphere), boom focusing (as an vehicle turns, the inside of the turn gets a more focused boom. And all this trouble is for Mach 1.7 to 2.4!
The additional problem for hypersonic flight is that the world just isn't big enough for it to be practical. The most efficient segment is at the high altitude at high speed, but by the time you get there, you have to come down again. If there Earth was more like Jupiter in size you could cut some real time out of a trip and benefit from the high speed cruise segment.
Statistics is a pretty broad field. If engineers and decision makers had a real inkling of the concept of variation there would be hope for some of them...but there are plenty of real abuses out there. "torture the numbers until they tell you what you want them to say"
Precision without accuracy is worse then accuracy without precision.
Printers have played this racket for some time. Get an amazing printer for $70 and then spend $30/month on ink. What a deal!
Bill wants folks to subscribe to applications like cable TV or something. You get your free computer, but are stuck with a high total cost of ownership paying $2.50/month for your screen saver (like for cell phones), $1.00 to open a word document...there is a special today for printing at 10 cents/page.... Can you imagine the intrusive spyware they would toss in?
We shall see how the game unfolds.
Bush=Moron=-1 Troll/Flamebait (100% of the time...good thing I have Mod to burn!)
Many of the choices are useless noise. This is what stresses people up. A typical grocery now has about 95 toothpaste products to "choose" from in 5 different sizes.
Men live in fear of getting stuck buying anything at the store for their wife in the "personal care aisle". Any attempt by wife to make this easier are confounded by a ever-shifting product placement, naming, new features, colors scents and package design.
That kind of craft would probably employ multiple propulsion systems including a turbo-jet to reach supersonic speeds, scramjets to take the vessel to the edge of the atmosphere and then chemical rockets to enter the void of space.
The danger here is that the darn thing will carry all of these systems and have no capacity left over for payload. I recall the Boeing SST back in the late 60's early 70's was based on a swing wing concept. The scale of the mechanical systems to swing the large wing faced them with a difficult choice of a swing wing or passengers...but not both.
In the physics world one has a sense that they are on to something when the math becomes elegant and simple...I think in the "no moving parts" nature of the scram jet are appealing...a turbofan/scram/rocket combination is not
The trajectory of a conventional rocket accomplishes 2 things...getting up...and getting to orbital speed. This approach really replaces the first nearly vertical portion with a more conventional lifting air breathing propulsion vehicle.
Actually I play VGA Planets V4. It is a play by mail with 1992 era graphics.
The playability of a game has much more to do with an interesting concept and a well balanced game than splashy graphics...but that is my opinion. I have enjoyed the networked FSP's but in general my gaming time is (was...I have twin infants) punctuated with interuptions from wife, children, life... I can't sit troll like in the glow of a LCD...as much as I might like to sometimes.
A few more reason I don't have a console at home are:
1) they are usually an ugly tangle of cords in the living room (at least in my friends homes)
2) I would like my kids to be comfortable on the computer doing more than just games
3) I want my kids to go outside more, and the home workstation area less central...requiring a more active decision to choose versus turning on the tube.
I may be an old fart about this, but I think many of the slower more thoughtful strategy games are more fun than the twitchers. These games will always be on the PC side. I can see the migration where FPS's will tend toward the console.
I think the more significant interview was with Clease. The distinction (and I think it is a very important one) is that the movie pokes fun at religion and fanaticism. His statement was along the lines "you just can't make of of teh big JC." There is not in my opinion a single pointed jab at Christ in the Life of Brian, rather it highlights the idiotic and sinful nature of our being...which pretty much is the same function of Christs message in most of the gospel. On numerous occasions in the gospel JC demonstrated a keen wit and sense of humor, the approach in which it is presented is out of touch with it. It is similar to how many make Shakespeare out to be high brow because of the thees and thous in the language when in reality it is baudy and crass stuff.
Getting back the the LOB...Take for instance the sermon on the mount scene. There were a large number of people listening intently to JC. One does have to wonder where the edge of the following was. There were some people that didn't know or care what Christ said. The LOB explores that part of history in a comical setting.
Many of the implementation ideas in the interview are coupled with cell phones with phone features replacing the contents of my wallet. All of the recent (last few years) "advancements" for my cell phone have been negative in my opinion. I can't buy a frickin' phone that shows a phone number without wrapping to the next line for example.
In this light, I don't have confidence that this will be implemented without raising my stress level.
Time to find a shed in Montana and write myself a manifesto
At my grocery store they spit out coupons based on what you buy and hand that to you in addition to your receipt. I know they track because the coupons from one trip correspond to previous trips. For example if I buy baby formula I get diaper coupons. On another trip for milk and eggs I get another round of diaper coupons while the little old lady gets coupons for Depends.
I believe what they're saying is that the IMPLEMENTATION AS A WHOLE is copyrightable
I think this clears this up. Suppose I copyright an idea for a movie. A poor orphan is mentored by some genius that everyone thinks is crazy. Poor orphan develops into brave and talented warrior, fighter, chess player, bocce ball player etc. and defeats...the bad guy. Turns out the bad guy was his fathers arch enemy blah blah blah.
Now half the adventure films produced in the next 50 years owe me millions!!!
Back to programming, I could copyright MyBubbleSort.c or a paper about sorting algorithms, but I could not copyright the idea or concept of a sorting algorithm.
Slashdot Mirror
It takes me about 10 days of listening to rolling surf sipping rum drinks with little umbrellas to recharge my organic batteries.
When I first saw the concrete work, I thought it was the bunker for the listeners and the woofer would be in a seperate facility.
BTW - This is not intended to start a browser war thread so don't go there.
There are good reasons to get software out quickly, and waiting for the last bit of optimization my not be market efficient (missed sales opportunities). However, an awareness of scalability and performance should be included in design decisions made so that a system does not collapse under its own weight. When compromises are made there should be enough awareness that the team can go back and do some refactoring later to tidy things up...at least along the critical use case scenarios.
After all the rancor over the last few years the wording of the press release is so mechical...I wonder if you can see Scott McNealy's new borg implant blinking in the video coverage.
Setting aside the silliness of fashion, elegant designs (lamps, home furnishings, clothes...) generally cost more than their K-mart alternatives. This is very true in architecture (which is probably the closest physical analogy to SW interfaces. There are builders tossing up 3600 sq ft barns for $140/sq ft. The damn houses have crummy flow, light switches in the wrong place, plumbing running down exterior walls so pipes freeze, messed up rooflines etc. It takes time, talent and forethought to design something well.
Since much of open source is developed to satisfy the intellectual/academic interests of the development team, they often forget that someone else may want to play with their toys. I am sure there are many exceptions to this and these are generalizations, but that's my 3 cents
The later pretty much guarantees the former.
Straight up my wife went to high school with a Richard Wacker. I understand he lived up to his name too!
Could we give it a rest already!
"there will be no more fun of any kind" - Dean Wormer
Remember this is baseball
Additional challenges arise from atmospheric effects (e.g. the wave propogating above the airplane bouncing off the upper atmosphere), boom focusing (as an vehicle turns, the inside of the turn gets a more focused boom. And all this trouble is for Mach 1.7 to 2.4!
The additional problem for hypersonic flight is that the world just isn't big enough for it to be practical. The most efficient segment is at the high altitude at high speed, but by the time you get there, you have to come down again. If there Earth was more like Jupiter in size you could cut some real time out of a trip and benefit from the high speed cruise segment.
Precision without accuracy is worse then accuracy without precision.
So one that actually runs WELL would be about....$78,123?
If ignorance is bliss there ought to be a lot more happy people
Bill wants folks to subscribe to applications like cable TV or something. You get your free computer, but are stuck with a high total cost of ownership paying $2.50/month for your screen saver (like for cell phones), $1.00 to open a word document...there is a special today for printing at 10 cents/page.... Can you imagine the intrusive spyware they would toss in?
We shall see how the game unfolds.
Bush=Moron=-1 Troll/Flamebait (100% of the time...good thing I have Mod to burn!)
I'll give you every dollar in my wallet for the 747...that would be $6 today!
Men live in fear of getting stuck buying anything at the store for their wife in the "personal care aisle". Any attempt by wife to make this easier are confounded by a ever-shifting product placement, naming, new features, colors scents and package design.
The danger here is that the darn thing will carry all of these systems and have no capacity left over for payload. I recall the Boeing SST back in the late 60's early 70's was based on a swing wing concept. The scale of the mechanical systems to swing the large wing faced them with a difficult choice of a swing wing or passengers...but not both.
In the physics world one has a sense that they are on to something when the math becomes elegant and simple...I think in the "no moving parts" nature of the scram jet are appealing...a turbofan/scram/rocket combination is not
The trajectory of a conventional rocket accomplishes 2 things...getting up...and getting to orbital speed. This approach really replaces the first nearly vertical portion with a more conventional lifting air breathing propulsion vehicle.
The playability of a game has much more to do with an interesting concept and a well balanced game than splashy graphics...but that is my opinion. I have enjoyed the networked FSP's but in general my gaming time is (was...I have twin infants) punctuated with interuptions from wife, children, life... I can't sit troll like in the glow of a LCD...as much as I might like to sometimes.
A few more reason I don't have a console at home are:
1) they are usually an ugly tangle of cords in the living room (at least in my friends homes)
2) I would like my kids to be comfortable on the computer doing more than just games
3) I want my kids to go outside more, and the home workstation area less central...requiring a more active decision to choose versus turning on the tube.
I may be an old fart about this, but I think many of the slower more thoughtful strategy games are more fun than the twitchers. These games will always be on the PC side. I can see the migration where FPS's will tend toward the console.
Getting back the the LOB...Take for instance the sermon on the mount scene. There were a large number of people listening intently to JC. One does have to wonder where the edge of the following was. There were some people that didn't know or care what Christ said. The LOB explores that part of history in a comical setting.
Actually my parent post is based on observations WITHOUT a store issues card. This is tracked based on my Visa card.
In this light, I don't have confidence that this will be implemented without raising my stress level.
Time to find a shed in Montana and write myself a manifesto
At my grocery store they spit out coupons based on what you buy and hand that to you in addition to your receipt. I know they track because the coupons from one trip correspond to previous trips. For example if I buy baby formula I get diaper coupons. On another trip for milk and eggs I get another round of diaper coupons while the little old lady gets coupons for Depends.
You are very right! Bundling software is much worse than taking lives.
I think this clears this up. Suppose I copyright an idea for a movie. A poor orphan is mentored by some genius that everyone thinks is crazy. Poor orphan develops into brave and talented warrior, fighter, chess player, bocce ball player etc. and defeats ...the bad guy. Turns out the bad guy was his fathers arch enemy blah blah blah.
Now half the adventure films produced in the next 50 years owe me millions!!!
Back to programming, I could copyright MyBubbleSort.c or a paper about sorting algorithms, but I could not copyright the idea or concept of a sorting algorithm.