"More often than not"? Really? That hasn't been my experience. In fact, I haven't experienced a single problem due to a Windows update.
Please give your basis for that statement. How many updates have you installed and how many things have broken because of those updates? Are you speaking for yourself only or the population at large? If what you state is true then others must have the same problem, that more things are broken than fixed by Windows updates. Certainly there must be more on the web about this - can you provide any links to supporting information?
Screen scraping is data gathering. Data mining is looking for trends or patterns in data you already have. Getting the nuggets out of your data to continue with the mining analogy. From this presentation titled "An Introduction to Data Mining Technology" data mining is defined as "The automated extraction of hidden predictive information from (large) databases".
The bottom line is this: when you put this work experience down on your resume don't say you were data mining. Companies looking for that experience will ask you hard questions you don't know the answers to and you will be embarrassed.
Everyone loves GCC?
on
GCC 3.3 Released
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Not for me, thanks. I prefer the dynamic duo of Borland's C++ Builder/Kylix. Cross platform gui development? How you say...ah yes...w00t!
For Java, Sun One Studio (crappy name)/Netbeans (inaccurate name) floats my boat. There is a light C++ module for Netbeans but I haven't tried it...no need.
Borland® Kylix(TM) 3 Open Edition delivers an integrated ANSI/ISO C++ and Delphi(TM) language solution for building powerful open-source applications for Linux,® licensed under the GNU General Public License
Commenters have asked how Google will tell weblogs from other web content. Obviously there is not one universal way to do this so the search engine will have to look at a number of indicators:
How often does the phrase "current mood" appear?
How often does the phrase "listening to" appear on the same page as "current mood"?
Does "George Bush" or "shrub" appear on the same page as "dictator", "simian", or "ass"?
Is Wil Wheaton mentioned on the page?
It's a start. Google will have to pay me for more...
The story has a hyperlink to ebay in addition to a hyperlink to the auction. Why do people insist on this sort of silly linking? That's like posting a NYT article and having "NYT" link to the index page while also having a link to the article. "No, I don't want to see the auction but hey, this ebay thing itself sounds interesting!" Adds nothing to the posting.
Ok, it's a small thing and this article is not a particularly egregious example of the practice...consider it the straw that broke the camel's back. I hate having to mouse over every link looking for the one that actually deals with the subject at hand. I see a day coming where every word links to its dictionary.com definition...
It was a lot of fun, but we didn't win (2nd place). Here's how it goes:
Stand in line, then stand in line some more. Fill out a sheet where you list your car's name ("Thundermobile", courtesy of my 3 year old) and the team members (myself, my 5 year old daughter and my 3 year old son). Sign a waiver saying that if you die it's your problem and if you're on TV then you get no money.
Finally it's build time. 3 teams get 10 minutes to assemble their race cars. First, pick a frame from about 1 dozen or so shells and then head to your workbench. Pick 4 wheels (sizes are large, medium, small). Attach wheels (don't forget cotter pins). At this point you have a car to race. You're provided with other items to attach...basically a bin of junk that serves only to dress up the car but can add weight. You also get flashlights and batteries. I was going to pile on the batteries for weight but was told that too much weight will sometimes make the car get stuck on the track. Everything has to be secured with either colored electrical tape or zip ties. After a final check the cars are loaded on the "junkivator" and lifted to the start of the course. Teams are put on stage and the race is run. Winning times are around 5 seconds. The winner gets a team picture with the host and the losers go off to an old auto bench seat. For our effort each of us got a JYW bag containing promotional flyers, radio shack coupons (they're sponsoring the tour), a picture frame magnet, and a JYW mini maglite in a JYW-branded plastic case. The winners get the same plus a t-shirt.
It was fun though not really a challenging build (remember, they have to crank through as many teams as they can which is why the time is limited). A great thing for a family to do together. There's a lot of hype - the host is very energetic (he's the same guy on the tour commercial) and everyone is very nice. The kids liked being on the TV screens around the display and liked the race. My son has been talking about doing it again. All it all it was worthwhile and if they have a tour next year we'll do it again.
News is good. Give us news. Spare us your opinions, or at least use some restraint. Not everyone here hates Microsoft, you know...
Don't click the link
on
Hamvention
·
· Score: 2, Informative
If you haven't heard about tubgirl, trust me, you don't want to find out. If you click the link you'll think, "Oh, I should have listened to that guy on slashdot who told me not to click the link".
Star Trek novelizations? Hardly. I'll have you know I only read original Star Trek fiction.
Others, though, have done more than I:
Joyce is a poet and also an elephantine pedant. -- George Orwell
Never did I read such tosh. As for the first two chapters we will let them pass, but the 3rd 4th 5th 6th -- merely the scratching of pimples on the body of the bootboy at Claridges. -- Virginia Woolf
James Joyce = overrated. Overrated is James Joyce. It was a dark and overrated night. A shot rang out. James Joyce screamed. "Is there an overrated author in the house?" [J. Joyce steps forward].
At least he did give us the term quark:
Three quarks for Muster Mark! Sure he hasn't got much of a bark And sure any he has it's all beside the mark."
Was it like this back in the day?
on
SARS and the Internet
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
When the telephone first came into widespread use did newspapers write articles about how the phone helped this or facilitated that?
What I'm really asking is why is this news? The Internet, designed for communication, has helped people communicate. I don't see this as a huge breakthrough.
209 Perl programmers coding scripts to run my house. Who would be insane enough to run that code? All thoughts about the maintainability of Perl aside I find I require my house to do very little text processing.
Gibson is largely overrated...he's the James Joyce of the tech set (ok, not quite that bad). He's had some great ideas but has trouble putting those ideas into a well-written and complete story. Perhaps he should consider a collaboration for his next novel...
That 45% figure is such BS. I don't see where the guy ever backed it up. Here is my reply to that article. I run Windows XP Home and keep it fully patched, at least for critical items, plus some optional items (like Movie Maker). So far this year I've installed 19 patches (Windows Update has a history feature). Let's say each update is 5MB (which is a very liberal estimate. Most are under 1MB). That's 95MB over 4 months, or roughly 20MB/month. If that is 45% of the ISP's traffic then that ISP is getting off cheap and shouldn't complain...especially if you consider that my estimate is probably 3x too high.
Spend some time doing your wife instead of watching cartoons, eh? If you don't know how to "do" your wife, well, I won't show you but I'll show her and maybe she'll teach you. She'll be disappointed with you, of course, but she'll learn to make do.
And yes, I'm no coward...I'm posting using my nick. I've designated one day per week as "karma burn" day and guess what, today is it!
Start a club to encourage people to come around to your way of thinking...I'm sure that will be a hit. And oooh, "build and upgrade a computer for the club"? A real working computer? I bet that will be the draw of the tri-state area.
Look, your enthusiasm is appreciated but you need to find another outlet for it. This is the time to stretch yourself. Look into the drama club (if there is one) or take a drama class (I had to after getting kicked out of the computer class...back in 19 and 81...it was great!). If you still have a burning need to be ostracized or need to be a super geek then check out the Society for Creative Anachronism. How about organizing a volunteer club where you work on community projects such as Habitat for Humanity? Or just volunteer...I did volunteer work in high school and college at local hospitals (yes, I was a candy striper, but at least the red and white striped polo shirt didn't look too gay). The possibilities are endless...don't pigeonhole yourself now - there will be plenty of time for others to do that for you.
Slashdot Mirror
"More often than not"? Really? That hasn't been my experience. In fact, I haven't experienced a single problem due to a Windows update.
Please give your basis for that statement. How many updates have you installed and how many things have broken because of those updates? Are you speaking for yourself only or the population at large? If what you state is true then others must have the same problem, that more things are broken than fixed by Windows updates. Certainly there must be more on the web about this - can you provide any links to supporting information?
Screen scraping is data gathering. Data mining is looking for trends or patterns in data you already have. Getting the nuggets out of your data to continue with the mining analogy. From this presentation titled "An Introduction to Data Mining Technology" data mining is defined as "The automated extraction of hidden predictive information from (large) databases".
The bottom line is this: when you put this work experience down on your resume don't say you were data mining. Companies looking for that experience will ask you hard questions you don't know the answers to and you will be embarrassed.
Or maybe:
Has this sentence verb, no?
Not for me, thanks. I prefer the dynamic duo of Borland's C++ Builder/Kylix. Cross platform gui development? How you say...ah yes...w00t!
For Java, Sun One Studio (crappy name)/Netbeans (inaccurate name) floats my boat. There is a light C++ module for Netbeans but I haven't tried it...no need.
Give Kylix a try - there is a free version you know:
Borland® Kylix(TM) 3 Open Edition delivers an integrated ANSI/ISO C++ and Delphi(TM) language solution for building powerful open-source applications for Linux,® licensed under the GNU General Public License
Download it here.
Not flamebait, you kneejerk mods.
How often does the phrase "current mood" appear?
How often does the phrase "listening to" appear on the same page as "current mood"?
Does "George Bush" or "shrub" appear on the same page as "dictator", "simian", or "ass"?
Is Wil Wheaton mentioned on the page?
It's a start. Google will have to pay me for more...
The story has a hyperlink to ebay in addition to a hyperlink to the auction. Why do people insist on this sort of silly linking? That's like posting a NYT article and having "NYT" link to the index page while also having a link to the article. "No, I don't want to see the auction but hey, this ebay thing itself sounds interesting!" Adds nothing to the posting.
Ok, it's a small thing and this article is not a particularly egregious example of the practice...consider it the straw that broke the camel's back. I hate having to mouse over every link looking for the one that actually deals with the subject at hand. I see a day coming where every word links to its dictionary.com definition...
"Kaena" is french for "surrender", or more accurately, "retreat".
It was a lot of fun, but we didn't win (2nd place). Here's how it goes:
Stand in line, then stand in line some more. Fill out a sheet where you list your car's name ("Thundermobile", courtesy of my 3 year old) and the team members (myself, my 5 year old daughter and my 3 year old son). Sign a waiver saying that if you die it's your problem and if you're on TV then you get no money.
Finally it's build time. 3 teams get 10 minutes to assemble their race cars. First, pick a frame from about 1 dozen or so shells and then head to your workbench. Pick 4 wheels (sizes are large, medium, small). Attach wheels (don't forget cotter pins). At this point you have a car to race. You're provided with other items to attach...basically a bin of junk that serves only to dress up the car but can add weight. You also get flashlights and batteries. I was going to pile on the batteries for weight but was told that too much weight will sometimes make the car get stuck on the track. Everything has to be secured with either colored electrical tape or zip ties. After a final check the cars are loaded on the "junkivator" and lifted to the start of the course. Teams are put on stage and the race is run. Winning times are around 5 seconds. The winner gets a team picture with the host and the losers go off to an old auto bench seat. For our effort each of us got a JYW bag containing promotional flyers, radio shack coupons (they're sponsoring the tour), a picture frame magnet, and a JYW mini maglite in a JYW-branded plastic case. The winners get the same plus a t-shirt.
It was fun though not really a challenging build (remember, they have to crank through as many teams as they can which is why the time is limited). A great thing for a family to do together. There's a lot of hype - the host is very energetic (he's the same guy on the tour commercial) and everyone is very nice. The kids liked being on the TV screens around the display and liked the race. My son has been talking about doing it again. All it all it was worthwhile and if they have a tour next year we'll do it again.
News is good. Give us news. Spare us your opinions, or at least use some restraint. Not everyone here hates Microsoft, you know...
If you haven't heard about tubgirl, trust me, you don't want to find out. If you click the link you'll think, "Oh, I should have listened to that guy on slashdot who told me not to click the link".
You have been warned.
Others, though, have done more than I:
Joyce is a poet and also an elephantine pedant. -- George Orwell
Never did I read such tosh. As for the first two chapters we will let them pass, but the 3rd 4th 5th 6th -- merely the scratching of pimples on the body of the bootboy at Claridges. -- Virginia Woolf
You can start by being the Oscar Wilde of slashdot and work your way to Joyce.
James Joyce = overrated. Overrated is James Joyce. It was a dark and overrated night. A shot rang out. James Joyce screamed. "Is there an overrated author in the house?" [J. Joyce steps forward].
At least he did give us the term quark:
Three quarks for Muster Mark!
Sure he hasn't got much of a bark
And sure any he has it's all beside the mark."
When the telephone first came into widespread use did newspapers write articles about how the phone helped this or facilitated that?
What I'm really asking is why is this news? The Internet, designed for communication, has helped people communicate. I don't see this as a huge breakthrough.
209 Perl programmers coding scripts to run my house. Who would be insane enough to run that code? All thoughts about the maintainability of Perl aside I find I require my house to do very little text processing.
Gibson is largely overrated...he's the James Joyce of the tech set (ok, not quite that bad). He's had some great ideas but has trouble putting those ideas into a well-written and complete story. Perhaps he should consider a collaboration for his next novel...
- Linux desktop is on the horizon
- Libranet is making its way towards the horizon
- Horizon doesn't get any closer
Therefore Libranet isn't making any progress. Perhaps they're in the driver's seat making engine noises.Fantasy Stocks [xmoo.com] = "http://xmoo.com/vse/index.html?referral=lpetrazic kis"
So what do you get for the referral? Oh, fakey money. How fun.
That 45% figure is such BS. I don't see where the guy ever backed it up. Here is my reply to that article. I run Windows XP Home and keep it fully patched, at least for critical items, plus some optional items (like Movie Maker). So far this year I've installed 19 patches (Windows Update has a history feature). Let's say each update is 5MB (which is a very liberal estimate. Most are under 1MB). That's 95MB over 4 months, or roughly 20MB/month. If that is 45% of the ISP's traffic then that ISP is getting off cheap and shouldn't complain...especially if you consider that my estimate is probably 3x too high.
What, you couldn't wait a couple of days? Is there some OS emergency that you need it right now?
Spend some time doing your wife instead of watching cartoons, eh? If you don't know how to "do" your wife, well, I won't show you but I'll show her and maybe she'll teach you. She'll be disappointed with you, of course, but she'll learn to make do.
And yes, I'm no coward...I'm posting using my nick. I've designated one day per week as "karma burn" day and guess what, today is it!
Coward. Why not use your nick? Not man enough to stand behind your words? Ask yourself, what would do?
Start a club to encourage people to come around to your way of thinking...I'm sure that will be a hit. And oooh, "build and upgrade a computer for the club"? A real working computer? I bet that will be the draw of the tri-state area.
Look, your enthusiasm is appreciated but you need to find another outlet for it. This is the time to stretch yourself. Look into the drama club (if there is one) or take a drama class (I had to after getting kicked out of the computer class...back in 19 and 81...it was great!). If you still have a burning need to be ostracized or need to be a super geek then check out the Society for Creative Anachronism. How about organizing a volunteer club where you work on community projects such as Habitat for Humanity? Or just volunteer...I did volunteer work in high school and college at local hospitals (yes, I was a candy striper, but at least the red and white striped polo shirt didn't look too gay). The possibilities are endless...don't pigeonhole yourself now - there will be plenty of time for others to do that for you.
For Windows...and it's free as in don't pay a thing. If you're a Windows user not using it then you're a sucka...
Proxomitron!