Nice one. I'll try to reuse this one. My unfavorite is "the one problem you couldn't solve". Lots of hard ones but none too hard to solve so its a dumb question. That's why people do engineering. To solve hard problems. If they can't solve the problems then why are they in the field? The only hard ones are trash product X from vendor which you have to document to the Nth degree before will fix their crap or tell you the workaround.
For Java webapps, ask them, "how does IOC relate to the command pattern" (replace IOC with struts or framework du jour). replace "command pattern" with callback pattern.
Another good one, how do you like message passing systems?
Another good one, what do you know about the OR mapping problem?
These are all three rookie mistakes plaguing the industry today. Many frameworks are being made for consultingware and time-wasting versus getting real work done.
Oh, another goodie for java webapps, compare and contrast OGNL and the global varialble problem.
The list goes on and one but my point is even most "architects" in most SW companies today are making severe rookie mistakes. These cost the company orders of magnitude in development costs and several orders of magnitude in inflexible and very hard to maintain code.
More good ones, Agile? Or Fr-Agile? eXtreme? Or eXtremely fragile?
I need to research Obama more. I don't think the "Democrat" or "Republican" parties mean anything. Most of the candidates advocate huge, social governments like what we have. Look at Bush, $5T overspending. Not even an apology. Talk about theft. I'm not optimistic about the future of America, freedom in America, or the American standard of living. The thieves are in the hen house of government.
I hope you don't expect to find a job doing embedded. This article is a joke. The pay is much better for slinging Java code or some other pseudo-science like Flash etc. It REALLY irritates me when companies say they cannot find employees because what they mean is they cannot find an employee AT LESS THAN THE LIVING WAGE! My friend works for MOTO in FL and makes $80K. He's been doing embedded for about 20 years. And houses are north of $300K there. Bottom line, according to the FHA he doesn't make enough to get a mortgage on a decent house there!
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler" -- Name that quote
"Keep It Simple Stupid" -- Name that SW design group
Answer these two and you too might understand simplicity!
BTW, the simplicity of individual responsibility cannot be understood by a Socialist people. Dr. Ron Paul's message of Freedom is unheard and not understood.
This is what I cannot figure out. The majority of people I talk to support Ron Paul but the majority of votes go the other way. I have talked to a few people who supported Fred Thompson (before), Huckabee, and one for Romney and one for Hillary and some for either Hilary or Obama. What I've found is those who support the democrats choose to selectively ignore voting records.
In the Republican precinct meeting here It was Huckabee, Romney, Paul, McCain, and other (Keyes?). In the county I think Paul bested them overall by 2 votes.
What I cannot figure out is if so many people support Ron Paul why he comes in second rather than first. My survey suggests people really do not study the issues. One guy says "I like abortion, so I'm voting Democrat" and another says "I like Bush so I'm voting McCain"; but nevermind the abortion issue is in stale-mate and Bush's promised balanced budget has not been postponed until 2012.:-)
I think if more people hear/heard about Dr. Ron Paul's stances that he would have been the best choice. The same argument goes for Huckabee as well. I really think candidates need to learn the art of not answering the question but taking over the debate with position statements. They should not rely on some dude who's a reporter to dictate what the American people hear from their next President. For instance, I never heard one candidate talk about tax evasion as the driver fro illegal immigration but that's pretty much the root cause.
Re:More info on Ron Paul's brand of Libertarianism
on
Has Ron Paul Quit?
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· Score: 1
I get sick of people calling Ron Paul a Liberterian. He a "Constitutionalist". Sure, some stances overlap but its just not the same. He ran as a Lib before as no Constitution party exists anymore (well one really does exist but is small). For crying out loud, the talk I heard on political history is that the Democrats originally were very focused on the Constitution (imagine that!) and now the REpublicans are more like what the Demococrats wre in the early 1800's.
Anyways, to appease your worry, Liberterianism does not preclude civil disputes. The government doesn't settle them a priori by a complex web of laws but the judge and jury settle them. This is much more akin to how non-authoritarian governments were run historically. Probably it is more like what the Judicial branch should actually be; but, since they rule on the basis of post-modernism (relativism) then they really have lost their authority and this is why they are basically an arm of the executive branch today. The prime argument against Liberterianism is the USA has no moral code and, likewise, no firm judicial branch.
That is the #1 lesson I've learned from this election. Makes me consider relocating ex-USA because the Socialist States of America seems only one election away. We already have socialized medicine (with a $34T unfunded future liability if you believe the USA Comptroller General) and socialized industry (tax breaks to go offshore, federal funding is the order of the day in many industries, etc), and a government who revises the Constitution with new laws such as making it illegal to bear arms [under circumstance X] when the Constitution clearly states the right to bear arms cannot be inhibited. In short, maybe some amazing event will save the day but, in reality, the Congress is to blame. The President is the executor but the Congressional COMMITTEE controls the country. The COMMITTEE determines what laws even get considered and tacks on the bribe paybacks on each bill. Americans don't care enough to even consider the voting records even when they are posted on the Internet and easy to find. Rather than marching on Washington (because your Senator or Congress person only show up in your state at campaign time or for funding dinners) the Americans are busy watching professional sports (which have profits less than the amount of government subsidies they receive)!
American do not know what freedom is anymore. When you say stop funding the Dept. of Education they act like you put a blind-fold on them and pushed them into the traffic. Are they idiots? Who knows better about a child's education than their parents? Have you even talked to your kid or your in-laws about public school? Unless you are segregated off into a rich, gerry-mandered school district then you're dealing with a total broken system. I'm talking about kids coming to kindergarten with ZERO knowledge of ABC's or anything else most of us teach our children by the time they are 4.
Dr. Ron Paul brings a message of Freedom. Most Americans cannot handle freedom. They cannot even recognize it. They've been brainwashed by socialism.
But nobody can argue how Dr. Ron Paul set the tone for the Republican party. Nobody was talking about the Consitution or even Fair Tax before he entered the race. (OK, not sure about Huckabee but I hear he picked up Fair Tax after Ron Paul). Maybe the next election they charade of the fractional banking ponzi scheme will even be widely debated!
Duh! At least admit he's the least whacky wahcko of them all. On the Socialist Democrat side you have a lady with an open marriage who works for insurance companies and says she doesn't support Bush's war although voted to fund it while on the other side you have a war-monger who admits he doesn't know anything about economics but "is strong on national security". Here we have 15 candidates blabbering about illegal immigration when anyone who's ever run a business knows it is simply and plain tax evasion. The IRS chooses not to pursue tax evasion in farm and construction work. Read at least the tax guide for small business before running for public office. Here we have candidates and people blabbering about $16K per family to fund Bush's war when each spends over $16K PER YEAR to fund socialized medicine and not to mention another $9K per year to pay people not to work.
Dr. Ron Paul did bring up the issue of engineered inflation as well as Fair Tax. The former will leave our children in poverty (as it is designed to do) and the latter is the only viable solution to offshoring, illegal immigration, and offshore tax havens. In fact, Fair Tax would make the USA a tax haven. No income tax. That people are not 100% voting for Fair Tax candidates shows most have no knowledge of the issues. Most do not. Ask them who voted for Iraq war and see if they point to the Democratic candidates. Ask them who voted for it at first and who voted for funding it now.
So, Dr. Ron Paul might as well stay in the race. He's well-funded. What happens if Huckabee drops out and McCain has a heart attack and dies? Stranger things have happened... remember Vince Foster and others with timely, untimely deaths during whitewater and other investigations into Bill Clinton. The man thoroughly dropped American integrity to a new low and took a strong notch from American pride. Seeing him campaigning in a church almost made me vomit.
These are just my opinions from watching the debates and alot of research on votesmart and other websites. In the end, I think the elections are gamed from the beginning. Also, few Americans really care. They don't think their vote can affect anything so do not vote.
Hmmmm, IDVinc has been doing trees for years. They are used in many games. Also do other simulations. Might be useful for researchers to research the market before setting out to reinvent the wheel.
Bravo! Yep, I designed and implemented something like what this sounds like in an online store in 1998. User just clicked buy and that was all. Cookie was used to authenticate the user and approve the purchase. Risky? Yes. Convenient. More yes. So OK for a local-oriented store system like The Columbia Marketplace.
I glanced at the Video editing software about this time last year and it was in v2.0 stability. Well, the rate of improvement is phenomenal. I did use DVDStyler (with DVDAuthor) to create a navigable DVD. That was very cool. Easy. Free. Worked.
The RIAA is suing the pants off of Americans but ignoring the rest of the world. As long as this continues then the rest of the world will use proprietary formats and commercial software without paying. So, the rest of the world already has a free standard. Just like with drugs and other things, Americans are bearing the burden of cost for the rest of the world.
No more so than under Windows. You just know how to tweak Windows on your computer vendor did it for you. My XP box had like 4 DVD players as certain ones including MSFT's player did not work well with various DVD's such as ones from Blockbuster or bought off of Amazon.com.
Haven't moved to Fedora 7 so no comment there but know the trick with Fedora Core 6 was to find a website where someone tells you the needed repository websites and lists the most helpful software. You have to add useful repositories. The reality is Windows starts to fall down too once you install umpteen packages. They fight over who gets to open whatever file etc. You end up having to edit the Registry (or whatever Vista has) to support opening files with various apps. What is the equivalent in Linux? (Most people cannot answer this and this clearly shows most people have been trained on Windows and are judging usability from a biased perspective.)
As a Java developer the Linux setup is cleaner than Windows. I would like to see/etc/alternatives (RHAT-ism) better support the full Java version switch (classpath, path, eclipse) but don't want it bad enough to code it myself.:-)
Of course some apps are written for Windows. Expecting to get free equivalents for Linux is not realistic (not always!;-). OTOH, many apps are written for Unix/Linux. E.g. XP's file searching does not even work. To defend Windows as superior when it fails basic usability in such a basic end user task is retarded. (find sucks and Find in Files fails.) Sure, some great apps were written for Windows but I'm sure you know the rate of innovation is far greater in Linux. Just look at the last 5 years. Monopolysoft has resorted to lawsuits to try to stop innovation, or as they could be thought of as saying, "Innovation happens elsewhere". This is not a good slogan for technology in America!
Monopolysoft plays "find-the-applet" with every release of their OS. Imagine how stupid I felt when it took me 30 minutes to setup printer sharing for a friends home network when they already had it working on some of their computers. Ended up having to jump around to three different settings dialogs in various applets to get that darn thing setup. And searching on the Internet DID NOT HELP. Ironic that in a few short years the Linux desktop has surpassed Windows in usability and support. Guess $1-$2B in excess cash a month is not being invested properly. When will the market start funding innovation rather than stagnation?
P.S> Glad to see someone is studying CompSci. I thought young adults had given up on tech. Its a mess with all of the poorly trained and unskilled people out here and the market demand going up by the month. Still, you can make alot more money being a doctor, lawyer, RE developer. But not as challenging!
I have found my Linux desktop to be far faster than Windows. I do SW development however so compile time is an essential issue. In reality, Linux matured as a desktop at the end of 2006 and Windows, OSX, and various Linux distro's/configs are all equivalent from the usability stance. Linux and Windows all have a few issues. Moving to Linux from Windows can be painful learning but moving to Windows from Linux is even more frustrating. Softie played their last card by changing the UI for Vista. If a usedr has to experience pain then they might as well move to Linux; thus, Microsoft nixed their one competitive advantage: momentum.
BTW, installing software is far easier on Linux than Windows. Just one example of where Linux is actually better than Windows. Also, OO runs better on Linux. On Windows I've seen font and other issues. Guess Microsoft needs to fix a few bugs in their OS or admit Linux is a better platform for office computing!
Questionable. I've used OO for about a year now. Works great. And you can do stuff you cannot do in Office - well, I quit using Office so maybe 2007 introduced a new drawing program and improvements to Wrod et al.
My wife uses Linux every day and the only support issue I have is when the cable modem fails. Far better than futzing with iTunes and Windows XP. We still have Windows on one box at home but I rarely use it. It doesn't handle the DVD drive well. Go figure.
I use Fedora but Ubuntu looked pretty good to me too. Just had no need to switch.
TimJowers P.S> Tell you brother-in-law to use a non-Proprietary file format. That's what most of the rest of the world does. Windows and proprietary formats are buggy whips.
Like alot of Microserfs I thought Windows was the best. I moved to Linux for a year and realized it has so many more features even only considering the GUI's. Now I'm on a contract with Windblows and ever week I run into a blatant bug. From IE dieing silently to Outlook taking 2 minutes to do a simple cut and paste. From file searching not working (I know, this was intentionally defeatured by retardosoft) to file deletes which take 30 minutes. I've concluded Windows users are dodo birds. They do not know the climate has changed. I guess it's like the blue cross company where I contracted in 2001 who still did EVERYTHING through a mainframe. The old timers had setup the company in the 1960's and it worked then so they figured why change. Winblows is the same: a real productivity killer.
I remember a few years ago when I use to do that retarded "send bug to Microsoft" popup thing almost every day. It became a joke. How many times would they popup the notification yet never fix IE? I gave up after about 3 months. I realized they had no intention of fixing their bugs. Like one friend proposed, the software industry should impose penalties for bugs.
The big idea is to start your own game community. Then you can print money too. (OK, Fed doesn't actually print but just updates database rows. The US Government prints. Fed gets fractional banking ponzi credits (10x) and again do their banking buddies (10x more).) So, a three-level ponzi scheme seems optimal. So, your game company prints money by making virtual assets (read "Second Life" and gold coin games) and then maybe you have some governing scheme (central "bank") and distributors (member banks/banks who can access the fiat). Thus your players might trust you. Americans do in the game of dollar deflation (aka "theft from savers", "Central Banking System", and "Fiat currency"). Maybe EBAY and other outlets are the distributors as they get a cut on the trade of fiat. Not a 10x multiplier but something.
I was surprised to find our white capped pionus is quite intelligent too. I grew up with dogs so am well aware of their non-human interests and thought processes but was surprised to compare the pionus (about 8 inches) to the cockatiels (about 5 inches). The pionus clearly can do path planning and when placed in a complex environment simply walks the right ways to exit (given three turns/tricky moves for instance). The cockatiel exhibits far less cognitive modeling. They make 5 or 6 tries on each needed turn/trick until they get it and then go to the next one. Sometimes they undo their progress but then it takes fewer tries to get back where they were. The older cockatiel will try to show the younger one what to do. Birds certainly have different behaviors than humans. The striking thing about animals is how quickly they turn to violence. They love unconditionally but will maime and kill without hesitation. They have strict pecking order. But in reality maybe humans are not much different. I guess the "man" has me down low on the pecking order but like everyone like to pretend my social position is for some contrived, human, and civilized reason.
Oh yeah, the cockatiels are extremely adept at flight and enjoy banking and dipping over all obstacles. The only time they hit a window is in panic when a silly hawk comes in for a grab (blocked by another window of course).
I am the market even if a small part. I've spent towards ten thousand dollars over my lifetime on Microsoft software. That's something most everyone used to do. Once I realized Gates wasn't investing in innovation then I moved to where the innovation actually is happening: Open Source. As an engineer I could not stand the technology burn and lies about technology plans and finally decided to stop funding Gates' activities.
Re:You don't need MS Office to create .doc files
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Does ODF Have a Future?
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· Score: 3, Informative
I use it almost every day. Other people with OO have no problems reading it either. So, very popular with me as it works as designed and expected. No problems so far.
I didn't RTA but I thank the FBI for stepping up. The fraud on the Internet is just atrocious. And no state police forces are ready/able to combat it. It crosses state lines. I remember over a decade ago when the hackers attacked a company where I worked, the FBI was the only force to even lift a finger.
I hope they trap and slaughter every single spammer and fraudster. The world would be alot more productive without those lowlifes.
I believe in the Bill of Rights but with Carnivore in place I'd sure expect to see some of the spammers eliminated. Maybe we should make a legal system where we gather the info on them and then sue their ISP and everyone else who supports them. I can see us adding a tarriff on all oil products from Nigeria to settle the illegal activities if they are unwilling to prosecute their criminals.
Modern brake pads have a lifetime warranty. The author seems to know even less than me about modern automechanics. Typical of Americans - lots of opinions but few have ever actually done the thing. One often sees this in polictical rhetoric especially from rich folks in CA who've never lived outside of their state. Nowhere is this worse than the US government which is composed of very rich men who have no knowledge of the average American.
This article is not informed. I just read a HomePower article yesterday on this. The deal is to buy alot of panels (dude bought 48 I think) and sell power to the grid during peak when it is most expensive. Then buy your power when the lights are out. The dude ended up with a surplus of power he couldn't use (you can only sell back the amount of power you used to use before going solar according to what I read). Basically he _gave_ power to Edison and they sold it to someone else. His payoff was 7 years. The panels hold a 25 year warranty. The grid is the "battery".
Anyone is CA should be installing solar like this. I'd do it here in NC if I got a tax credit like CA and my HOA would allow it. I'm thinking the USA should pass a law like the DirecTV that says an HOA cannot penalize for solar panels and hot water panels.
Slashdot Mirror
Nice one. I'll try to reuse this one. My unfavorite is "the one problem you couldn't solve". Lots of hard ones but none too hard to solve so its a dumb question. That's why people do engineering. To solve hard problems. If they can't solve the problems then why are they in the field? The only hard ones are trash product X from vendor which you have to document to the Nth degree before will fix their crap or tell you the workaround. For Java webapps, ask them, "how does IOC relate to the command pattern" (replace IOC with struts or framework du jour). replace "command pattern" with callback pattern. Another good one, how do you like message passing systems? Another good one, what do you know about the OR mapping problem? These are all three rookie mistakes plaguing the industry today. Many frameworks are being made for consultingware and time-wasting versus getting real work done. Oh, another goodie for java webapps, compare and contrast OGNL and the global varialble problem. The list goes on and one but my point is even most "architects" in most SW companies today are making severe rookie mistakes. These cost the company orders of magnitude in development costs and several orders of magnitude in inflexible and very hard to maintain code. More good ones, Agile? Or Fr-Agile? eXtreme? Or eXtremely fragile?
I need to research Obama more. I don't think the "Democrat" or "Republican" parties mean anything. Most of the candidates advocate huge, social governments like what we have. Look at Bush, $5T overspending. Not even an apology. Talk about theft. I'm not optimistic about the future of America, freedom in America, or the American standard of living. The thieves are in the hen house of government.
I hope you don't expect to find a job doing embedded. This article is a joke. The pay is much better for slinging Java code or some other pseudo-science like Flash etc. It REALLY irritates me when companies say they cannot find employees because what they mean is they cannot find an employee AT LESS THAN THE LIVING WAGE! My friend works for MOTO in FL and makes $80K. He's been doing embedded for about 20 years. And houses are north of $300K there. Bottom line, according to the FHA he doesn't make enough to get a mortgage on a decent house there!
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler"
-- Name that quote
"Keep It Simple Stupid"
-- Name that SW design group
Answer these two and you too might understand simplicity!
BTW, the simplicity of individual responsibility cannot be understood by a Socialist people. Dr. Ron Paul's message of Freedom is unheard and not understood.
This is what I cannot figure out. The majority of people I talk to support Ron Paul but the majority of votes go the other way. I have talked to a few people who supported Fred Thompson (before), Huckabee, and one for Romney and one for Hillary and some for either Hilary or Obama. What I've found is those who support the democrats choose to selectively ignore voting records.
In the Republican precinct meeting here It was Huckabee, Romney, Paul, McCain, and other (Keyes?). In the county I think Paul bested them overall by 2 votes.
What I cannot figure out is if so many people support Ron Paul why he comes in second rather than first. My survey suggests people really do not study the issues. One guy says "I like abortion, so I'm voting Democrat" and another says "I like Bush so I'm voting McCain"; but nevermind the abortion issue is in stale-mate and Bush's promised balanced budget has not been postponed until 2012.
I think if more people hear/heard about Dr. Ron Paul's stances that he would have been the best choice. The same argument goes for Huckabee as well. I really think candidates need to learn the art of not answering the question but taking over the debate with position statements. They should not rely on some dude who's a reporter to dictate what the American people hear from their next President. For instance, I never heard one candidate talk about tax evasion as the driver fro illegal immigration but that's pretty much the root cause.
I get sick of people calling Ron Paul a Liberterian. He a "Constitutionalist". Sure, some stances overlap but its just not the same. He ran as a Lib before as no Constitution party exists anymore (well one really does exist but is small). For crying out loud, the talk I heard on political history is that the Democrats originally were very focused on the Constitution (imagine that!) and now the REpublicans are more like what the Demococrats wre in the early 1800's.
Anyways, to appease your worry, Liberterianism does not preclude civil disputes. The government doesn't settle them a priori by a complex web of laws but the judge and jury settle them. This is much more akin to how non-authoritarian governments were run historically. Probably it is more like what the Judicial branch should actually be; but, since they rule on the basis of post-modernism (relativism) then they really have lost their authority and this is why they are basically an arm of the executive branch today. The prime argument against Liberterianism is the USA has no moral code and, likewise, no firm judicial branch.
Bingo!!! We have a winner.
That is the #1 lesson I've learned from this election. Makes me consider relocating ex-USA because the Socialist States of America seems only one election away. We already have socialized medicine (with a $34T unfunded future liability if you believe the USA Comptroller General) and socialized industry (tax breaks to go offshore, federal funding is the order of the day in many industries, etc), and a government who revises the Constitution with new laws such as making it illegal to bear arms [under circumstance X] when the Constitution clearly states the right to bear arms cannot be inhibited. In short, maybe some amazing event will save the day but, in reality, the Congress is to blame. The President is the executor but the Congressional COMMITTEE controls the country. The COMMITTEE determines what laws even get considered and tacks on the bribe paybacks on each bill. Americans don't care enough to even consider the voting records even when they are posted on the Internet and easy to find. Rather than marching on Washington (because your Senator or Congress person only show up in your state at campaign time or for funding dinners) the Americans are busy watching professional sports (which have profits less than the amount of government subsidies they receive)!
American do not know what freedom is anymore. When you say stop funding the Dept. of Education they act like you put a blind-fold on them and pushed them into the traffic. Are they idiots? Who knows better about a child's education than their parents? Have you even talked to your kid or your in-laws about public school? Unless you are segregated off into a rich, gerry-mandered school district then you're dealing with a total broken system. I'm talking about kids coming to kindergarten with ZERO knowledge of ABC's or anything else most of us teach our children by the time they are 4.
Dr. Ron Paul brings a message of Freedom. Most Americans cannot handle freedom. They cannot even recognize it. They've been brainwashed by socialism.
But nobody can argue how Dr. Ron Paul set the tone for the Republican party. Nobody was talking about the Consitution or even Fair Tax before he entered the race. (OK, not sure about Huckabee but I hear he picked up Fair Tax after Ron Paul). Maybe the next election they charade of the fractional banking ponzi scheme will even be widely debated!
Duh! At least admit he's the least whacky wahcko of them all. On the Socialist Democrat side you have a lady with an open marriage who works for insurance companies and says she doesn't support Bush's war although voted to fund it while on the other side you have a war-monger who admits he doesn't know anything about economics but "is strong on national security". Here we have 15 candidates blabbering about illegal immigration when anyone who's ever run a business knows it is simply and plain tax evasion. The IRS chooses not to pursue tax evasion in farm and construction work. Read at least the tax guide for small business before running for public office. Here we have candidates and people blabbering about $16K per family to fund Bush's war when each spends over $16K PER YEAR to fund socialized medicine and not to mention another $9K per year to pay people not to work.
Dr. Ron Paul did bring up the issue of engineered inflation as well as Fair Tax. The former will leave our children in poverty (as it is designed to do) and the latter is the only viable solution to offshoring, illegal immigration, and offshore tax havens. In fact, Fair Tax would make the USA a tax haven. No income tax. That people are not 100% voting for Fair Tax candidates shows most have no knowledge of the issues. Most do not. Ask them who voted for Iraq war and see if they point to the Democratic candidates. Ask them who voted for it at first and who voted for funding it now.
So, Dr. Ron Paul might as well stay in the race. He's well-funded. What happens if Huckabee drops out and McCain has a heart attack and dies? Stranger things have happened... remember Vince Foster and others with timely, untimely deaths during whitewater and other investigations into Bill Clinton. The man thoroughly dropped American integrity to a new low and took a strong notch from American pride. Seeing him campaigning in a church almost made me vomit.
These are just my opinions from watching the debates and alot of research on votesmart and other websites. In the end, I think the elections are gamed from the beginning. Also, few Americans really care. They don't think their vote can affect anything so do not vote.
Hmmmm, IDVinc has been doing trees for years. They are used in many games. Also do other simulations. Might be useful for researchers to research the market before setting out to reinvent the wheel.
Tim
Bravo! Yep, I designed and implemented something like what this sounds like in an online store in 1998. User just clicked buy and that was all. Cookie was used to authenticate the user and approve the purchase. Risky? Yes. Convenient. More yes. So OK for a local-oriented store system like The Columbia Marketplace.
FWIW, I've purchased numerous software titles and other products which include MPEG players so probably have numerous licenses.
Not sure... I missed this presentation: http://www.trilug.org/node/66
I glanced at the Video editing software about this time last year and it was in v2.0 stability. Well, the rate of improvement is phenomenal. I did use DVDStyler (with DVDAuthor) to create a navigable DVD. That was very cool. Easy. Free. Worked.
The RIAA is suing the pants off of Americans but ignoring the rest of the world. As long as this continues then the rest of the world will use proprietary formats and commercial software without paying. So, the rest of the world already has a free standard. Just like with drugs and other things, Americans are bearing the burden of cost for the rest of the world.
TimJowers
No more so than under Windows. You just know how to tweak Windows on your computer vendor did it for you. My XP box had like 4 DVD players as certain ones including MSFT's player did not work well with various DVD's such as ones from Blockbuster or bought off of Amazon.com.
/etc/alternatives (RHAT-ism) better support the full Java version switch (classpath, path, eclipse) but don't want it bad enough to code it myself. :-)
;-). OTOH, many apps are written for Unix/Linux. E.g. XP's file searching does not even work. To defend Windows as superior when it fails basic usability in such a basic end user task is retarded. (find sucks and Find in Files fails.) Sure, some great apps were written for Windows but I'm sure you know the rate of innovation is far greater in Linux. Just look at the last 5 years. Monopolysoft has resorted to lawsuits to try to stop innovation, or as they could be thought of as saying, "Innovation happens elsewhere". This is not a good slogan for technology in America!
Haven't moved to Fedora 7 so no comment there but know the trick with Fedora Core 6 was to find a website where someone tells you the needed repository websites and lists the most helpful software. You have to add useful repositories. The reality is Windows starts to fall down too once you install umpteen packages. They fight over who gets to open whatever file etc. You end up having to edit the Registry (or whatever Vista has) to support opening files with various apps. What is the equivalent in Linux? (Most people cannot answer this and this clearly shows most people have been trained on Windows and are judging usability from a biased perspective.)
As a Java developer the Linux setup is cleaner than Windows. I would like to see
Of course some apps are written for Windows. Expecting to get free equivalents for Linux is not realistic (not always!
TimJowers
Monopolysoft plays "find-the-applet" with every release of their OS. Imagine how stupid I felt when it took me 30 minutes to setup printer sharing for a friends home network when they already had it working on some of their computers. Ended up having to jump around to three different settings dialogs in various applets to get that darn thing setup. And searching on the Internet DID NOT HELP. Ironic that in a few short years the Linux desktop has surpassed Windows in usability and support. Guess $1-$2B in excess cash a month is not being invested properly. When will the market start funding innovation rather than stagnation?
P.S> Glad to see someone is studying CompSci. I thought young adults had given up on tech. Its a mess with all of the poorly trained and unskilled people out here and the market demand going up by the month. Still, you can make alot more money being a doctor, lawyer, RE developer. But not as challenging!
I have found my Linux desktop to be far faster than Windows. I do SW development however so compile time is an essential issue. In reality, Linux matured as a desktop at the end of 2006 and Windows, OSX, and various Linux distro's/configs are all equivalent from the usability stance. Linux and Windows all have a few issues. Moving to Linux from Windows can be painful learning but moving to Windows from Linux is even more frustrating. Softie played their last card by changing the UI for Vista. If a usedr has to experience pain then they might as well move to Linux; thus, Microsoft nixed their one competitive advantage: momentum.
BTW, installing software is far easier on Linux than Windows. Just one example of where Linux is actually better than Windows. Also, OO runs better on Linux. On Windows I've seen font and other issues. Guess Microsoft needs to fix a few bugs in their OS or admit Linux is a better platform for office computing!
Questionable. I've used OO for about a year now. Works great. And you can do stuff you cannot do in Office - well, I quit using Office so maybe 2007 introduced a new drawing program and improvements to Wrod et al.
My wife uses Linux every day and the only support issue I have is when the cable modem fails. Far better than futzing with iTunes and Windows XP. We still have Windows on one box at home but I rarely use it. It doesn't handle the DVD drive well. Go figure.
I use Fedora but Ubuntu looked pretty good to me too. Just had no need to switch.
TimJowers
P.S> Tell you brother-in-law to use a non-Proprietary file format. That's what most of the rest of the world does. Windows and proprietary formats are buggy whips.
The USA is not a free market. It is a corporatocracy. Try to setup your own ISP and you'll soon find out from who's pockets the city officials peer.
Like alot of Microserfs I thought Windows was the best. I moved to Linux for a year and realized it has so many more features even only considering the GUI's. Now I'm on a contract with Windblows and ever week I run into a blatant bug. From IE dieing silently to Outlook taking 2 minutes to do a simple cut and paste. From file searching not working (I know, this was intentionally defeatured by retardosoft) to file deletes which take 30 minutes. I've concluded Windows users are dodo birds. They do not know the climate has changed. I guess it's like the blue cross company where I contracted in 2001 who still did EVERYTHING through a mainframe. The old timers had setup the company in the 1960's and it worked then so they figured why change. Winblows is the same: a real productivity killer.
I remember a few years ago when I use to do that retarded "send bug to Microsoft" popup thing almost every day. It became a joke. How many times would they popup the notification yet never fix IE? I gave up after about 3 months. I realized they had no intention of fixing their bugs. Like one friend proposed, the software industry should impose penalties for bugs.
The big idea is to start your own game community. Then you can print money too. (OK, Fed doesn't actually print but just updates database rows. The US Government prints. Fed gets fractional banking ponzi credits (10x) and again do their banking buddies (10x more).) So, a three-level ponzi scheme seems optimal. So, your game company prints money by making virtual assets (read "Second Life" and gold coin games) and then maybe you have some governing scheme (central "bank") and distributors (member banks/banks who can access the fiat). Thus your players might trust you. Americans do in the game of dollar deflation (aka "theft from savers", "Central Banking System", and "Fiat currency"). Maybe EBAY and other outlets are the distributors as they get a cut on the trade of fiat. Not a 10x multiplier but something.
I was surprised to find our white capped pionus is quite intelligent too. I grew up with dogs so am well aware of their non-human interests and thought processes but was surprised to compare the pionus (about 8 inches) to the cockatiels (about 5 inches). The pionus clearly can do path planning and when placed in a complex environment simply walks the right ways to exit (given three turns/tricky moves for instance). The cockatiel exhibits far less cognitive modeling. They make 5 or 6 tries on each needed turn/trick until they get it and then go to the next one. Sometimes they undo their progress but then it takes fewer tries to get back where they were. The older cockatiel will try to show the younger one what to do. Birds certainly have different behaviors than humans. The striking thing about animals is how quickly they turn to violence. They love unconditionally but will maime and kill without hesitation. They have strict pecking order. But in reality maybe humans are not much different. I guess the "man" has me down low on the pecking order but like everyone like to pretend my social position is for some contrived, human, and civilized reason.
Oh yeah, the cockatiels are extremely adept at flight and enjoy banking and dipping over all obstacles. The only time they hit a window is in panic when a silly hawk comes in for a grab (blocked by another window of course).
I am the market even if a small part. I've spent towards ten thousand dollars over my lifetime on Microsoft software. That's something most everyone used to do. Once I realized Gates wasn't investing in innovation then I moved to where the innovation actually is happening: Open Source. As an engineer I could not stand the technology burn and lies about technology plans and finally decided to stop funding Gates' activities.
I use it almost every day. Other people with OO have no problems reading it either. So, very popular with me as it works as designed and expected. No problems so far.
TimJowers
I didn't RTA but I thank the FBI for stepping up. The fraud on the Internet is just atrocious. And no state police forces are ready/able to combat it. It crosses state lines. I remember over a decade ago when the hackers attacked a company where I worked, the FBI was the only force to even lift a finger.
I hope they trap and slaughter every single spammer and fraudster. The world would be alot more productive without those lowlifes.
I believe in the Bill of Rights but with Carnivore in place I'd sure expect to see some of the spammers eliminated. Maybe we should make a legal system where we gather the info on them and then sue their ISP and everyone else who supports them. I can see us adding a tarriff on all oil products from Nigeria to settle the illegal activities if they are unwilling to prosecute their criminals.
My $.02
timjowers
Modern brake pads have a lifetime warranty. The author seems to know even less than me about modern automechanics. Typical of Americans - lots of opinions but few have ever actually done the thing. One often sees this in polictical rhetoric especially from rich folks in CA who've never lived outside of their state. Nowhere is this worse than the US government which is composed of very rich men who have no knowledge of the average American.
This article is not informed. I just read a HomePower article yesterday on this. The deal is to buy alot of panels (dude bought 48 I think) and sell power to the grid during peak when it is most expensive. Then buy your power when the lights are out. The dude ended up with a surplus of power he couldn't use (you can only sell back the amount of power you used to use before going solar according to what I read). Basically he _gave_ power to Edison and they sold it to someone else. His payoff was 7 years. The panels hold a 25 year warranty. The grid is the "battery".
Anyone is CA should be installing solar like this. I'd do it here in NC if I got a tax credit like CA and my HOA would allow it. I'm thinking the USA should pass a law like the DirecTV that says an HOA cannot penalize for solar panels and hot water panels.