This is certainly not off topic. It's simply another alliteration, similar to the one used in the headline.
Florida is a terrible place to live.
on
Largo Loving Linux
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· Score: 0, Offtopic
We were considering relocating there to retire. Cheap houses, no state income tax.
Then we looked at the crime rates for Central Florida. It's not all Disneyworld--in fact it's #1 and #2 in several categories for crime per capita.
There's a lot of poverty there, and poverty means crime (I'm not sure which one causes which.) Lots of people with their meth labs in their trailers, etc. Lots of drug runners coming through.
Look at this table. Each state has "Rate per 100,000 inhabitants" and you'll see what I mean.
We decided to stay in Northern California, despite the 9.5% state income tax because the crime rate is much lower. And I don't care that my state government doesn't do Linux. I just care that 90% of my neighbors aren't on welfare, making meth, or both.
First of all, I do think this is relevant. If a company has poor quality software, then they're probably hiring badly. And Amazon's over-agressive spider, that gets caught in infinite loops on CGI-BIN directories--certainly is poor quality.
Just last month, I interviewed for two jobs (and got two offers!). I declined both opportunities, in part because neither asked me any technical questions during the interview process! A complete fraud who interviews well could have had the jobs (and one didn't even check references!). I wouldn't want to work for a company that doesn't inteview well.
You have to admit--the zeal of the "Linux" folks can get a bit annoying. In fact, a lot of good applications for Linux aren't being realized because Big Corporations (like one I'm currently consulting for) doesn't consider it professional enough. They'll use FreeBSD, but not Linux.
I think the "University Connection" with BSD helps a bit, along with the standard distributions. Face it, a lot of the people going around promoting Linux are doing it for the wrong reasons: a hatred of Microsoft, as opposed to a true understanding of the advantages of Linux, and Un*x-based operating systems in general.
(I, too, prefer FreeBSD to Linux, and I can certainly empathize with your sentiment that the Linux community is cult-like.)
What's the deal here? It's hard to beleive this is malicious--probably just the result of Amazon hiring the cheapest possible kids to do the Perl hacking/crawling. If they hired more experienced professionals, they may have been able to crawl their affiliated sites better.
Amazon is crawling these sites so that they can be featured on their website. When you search for an item, Amazon lists the prices and availability from the associates--everyone wins.
It seems that Amazon is searching a bit too often--combined with some affiliated sites that have very s-l-o-w dynamic pages, which is causing some problem. It's hardly a crime that Amazon is commiting--after all they want the most accurate, up-to-the-minute information on their website.
Computers have been coming with all sorts of "Freebies" for years. For example, it may come with the AOL client pre-installed, which you have to pay $$$ for if you want to use. Fortunately, you can just delete it.
Bruce Eckel is one of the sexiest men around. I still can remember the day when that issue of Unix Review arrived and all the ladies at the office melted. (And some men, too, I found a thread about Bruce Eckel in soc.motss after a google search.)
I must say, I don't care for the new, beardless look. (Well, not completely beardless, but close. Maybe he's just getting older, too. There's a lot of grey in his hair now.
Anyway, back to Java: I'm disappointed that Bruce Eckel has "sold out" and switched from being a C++ guru to a Java guru. We all know that Java has lowered the standards for Computer Scientists, and has crippled many a new college grad who doesn't know what a pointer is! Also Java has a bad reputation, thanks to people like Patrick Naughton, a co-inventor of Java who used it to search for child pornography on the Internet.
Many people, including Jef Poskanzer and (independently) myself, have been quite amused over typical "Web Server" architecture.
Some sites I'm familiar with have racks of 50 or more PCs running Apache or IIS just to serve a moderate traffic web site. If you do the math, you can see that two PCs can easily saturate an OC-3 line.
Both Apache and Netscape servers FORK a new PROCESS for every connection. Some others--including a compile option in Apache--start a new thread. Boa (and Jef's thttpd) don't. They're SINGLE THREADED. Just one giant "select" statement, and memory mapped files.
I think part of the problem has been poor education and lack of experience of "web developers." Many times, it would be worth the time to develop a custom high-performance non-threading/forking server to serve a site. This way you can do everything off of two PCs (in case one fails) instead of 50. We need to start encourging people with strong C++/Systems/Embedded programming experience to be our web developers, and not hire kids who's experience is limited to Java, Perl, or some proprietarty web middleware language. Imagine if you customize Boa to server the dynalic pages you need, with all assets coming out of RAM. You may pay an extra $100K or so for software development up front, but the hosting costs will recover that.
(Yes, I know there's a T9 patent, but you're allowed to constuct models of patented devices for your personal study and evaluation--ask your favorite attorney for details.)
It seems to me that, given you already know the song titles in your collection, then using a system like T9 text entry would work great. (T9)
You'd spell out the name on a telephone-like keypad, with ABC on 2, DEF on 3, etc, and figure out what possible song title that's in your library is the match. For example, to spell out "Madonna", type in "6236662"--one digit per letter. In the rare case of two names matching one particular sequence, press the "0" key to scroll through them.
I admit it's not worth the monthly fee (though I was an early adopter who got transferrable-lifetime for $150, which I now have on my DirecTiVo with two "tuners")
However, it's REALLY NICE to have the program guide, the thumbs up/down, and the automatic selection.
What we need is an open website that has accurate TV listings, plus a suggestion engine. For example, people who like to watch Christopher Lowell also like to watch reruns of Dynasty, etc.
I would love it if there was a 6 Megapixel camera with a TCP/IP interface. I'm building a system where we have to use SLRs with digital backs in embedded applications (and they don't last long there!) just to get the resolution we need.
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Some books, like this one come with a distribution CD-ROM.
Good luck learning Linux!
Everyone else I know calls it 802.11
Who called the meeting and decided on this silly name change?
Then we looked at the crime rates for Central Florida. It's not all Disneyworld--in fact it's #1 and #2 in several categories for crime per capita.
There's a lot of poverty there, and poverty means crime (I'm not sure which one causes which.) Lots of people with their meth labs in their trailers, etc. Lots of drug runners coming through.
Look at this table. Each state has "Rate per 100,000 inhabitants" and you'll see what I mean. We decided to stay in Northern California, despite the 9.5% state income tax because the crime rate is much lower. And I don't care that my state government doesn't do Linux. I just care that 90% of my neighbors aren't on welfare, making meth, or both.
First of all, I do think this is relevant. If a company has poor quality software, then they're probably hiring badly. And Amazon's over-agressive spider, that gets caught in infinite loops on CGI-BIN directories--certainly is poor quality.
Just last month, I interviewed for two jobs (and got two offers!). I declined both opportunities, in part because neither asked me any technical questions during the interview process! A complete fraud who interviews well could have had the jobs (and one didn't even check references!). I wouldn't want to work for a company that doesn't inteview well.
I think the "University Connection" with BSD helps a bit, along with the standard distributions. Face it, a lot of the people going around promoting Linux are doing it for the wrong reasons: a hatred of Microsoft, as opposed to a true understanding of the advantages of Linux, and Un*x-based operating systems in general.
(I, too, prefer FreeBSD to Linux, and I can certainly empathize with your sentiment that the Linux community is cult-like.)
Amazon is crawling these sites so that they can be featured on their website. When you search for an item, Amazon lists the prices and availability from the associates--everyone wins.
It seems that Amazon is searching a bit too often--combined with some affiliated sites that have very s-l-o-w dynamic pages, which is causing some problem. It's hardly a crime that Amazon is commiting--after all they want the most accurate, up-to-the-minute information on their website.
Computers have been coming with all sorts of "Freebies" for years. For example, it may come with the AOL client pre-installed, which you have to pay $$$ for if you want to use. Fortunately, you can just delete it.
I'd bet that the MAJORITY of people who bought these things are now running a pirate copy of Windows ME/XP.
I must say, I don't care for the new, beardless look. (Well, not completely beardless, but close. Maybe he's just getting older, too. There's a lot of grey in his hair now.
Anyway, back to Java: I'm disappointed that Bruce Eckel has "sold out" and switched from being a C++ guru to a Java guru. We all know that Java has lowered the standards for Computer Scientists, and has crippled many a new college grad who doesn't know what a pointer is! Also Java has a bad reputation, thanks to people like Patrick Naughton, a co-inventor of Java who used it to search for child pornography on the Internet.
Some sites I'm familiar with have racks of 50 or more PCs running Apache or IIS just to serve a moderate traffic web site. If you do the math, you can see that two PCs can easily saturate an OC-3 line.
Both Apache and Netscape servers FORK a new PROCESS for every connection. Some others--including a compile option in Apache--start a new thread. Boa (and Jef's thttpd) don't. They're SINGLE THREADED. Just one giant "select" statement, and memory mapped files.
I think part of the problem has been poor education and lack of experience of "web developers." Many times, it would be worth the time to develop a custom high-performance non-threading/forking server to serve a site. This way you can do everything off of two PCs (in case one fails) instead of 50. We need to start encourging people with strong C++/Systems/Embedded programming experience to be our web developers, and not hire kids who's experience is limited to Java, Perl, or some proprietarty web middleware language. Imagine if you customize Boa to server the dynalic pages you need, with all assets coming out of RAM. You may pay an extra $100K or so for software development up front, but the hosting costs will recover that.
It seems to me that, given you already know the song titles in your collection, then using a system like T9 text entry would work great. (T9)
You'd spell out the name on a telephone-like keypad, with ABC on 2, DEF on 3, etc, and figure out what possible song title that's in your library is the match. For example, to spell out "Madonna", type in "6236662"--one digit per letter. In the rare case of two names matching one particular sequence, press the "0" key to scroll through them.
However, it's REALLY NICE to have the program guide, the thumbs up/down, and the automatic selection.
What we need is an open website that has accurate TV listings, plus a suggestion engine. For example, people who like to watch Christopher Lowell also like to watch reruns of Dynasty, etc.
Our application is portrait photos with an automated camera. You want to be able to print out a professional quality 8x10 or 11x14...
Right now we need a camera that's not designed for embedded use, tethered to a rather large PC in a secure box.
Maybe you should post a link to that Ice Cream to Rate My Poo!
Ride photo systems, and portrait quality "photo booths".
I would love it if there was a 6 Megapixel camera with a TCP/IP interface. I'm building a system where we have to use SLRs with digital backs in embedded applications (and they don't last long there!) just to get the resolution we need.
Especially if you want to boycott X-10 on priniciple--if you're against those pop-up ads and the exploitation of large-breasted women.