I missed one major point when I submitted that reply.
I was there because they were trying to make it do 'new' neato-wow things. The owner didn't understand why the 386 running DOS that was printing to a dot-matrix printer (untill it died, and the manufacturer was out of business) wanted to print to a networked office laser printer.
I could get it to connect and print, but the fonts were all different. That wasn't good enough. So owner of the company wanted me to re-write all the PCL code so that it would look the same on the laser, (pulling from a specific tray based on paper colour, etc...) His other option was to upgrade to a newer version of the software (which was available).
I asked about this: his answer; "I will upgrade it when that PC dies."
He was only delaying the upgrade because he was a cheap-fuck who thought I had nothing better to do with my time then rewite code that he wasn't planning on keeping.
I am the guy who installed the multi-function printer. His in-house BASIC expert said: "I don't want to do it, it's your machine, you do it."
You don't rebuild a VW-Bug just to use up the remaining fuel in the tank.
I know I will get flamed by some out-of-work programmers out there,
but...
There are too many companies that refuse to move out of the computing Bronze-Age; bite the bullet and upgrade.
The town that I work in (Blue-collar auto-industry) is filled with tool & die shops. Typical scenerio: The owner left the assembly line of Ford/GM/whatever 20 years ago and created his own company. He bought a DOS app to run his business on a 286-server/workstation, and he is surprised and insulted to find out that XP won't run on it.
I have seen shops that Net revenue >$10 million/year, and they depend on a app written in BASIC!!!! as their life-blood.
Holy shit people, it might be time to upgrade!
There is a reason we don't (all) still use Horse & buggys. There is still a market for companies to make horse-shoes and buggy whips, (and I bet that company has a monopoly) but there are valid reasons to upgrade.
There will always be a need for Legacy-based skills, but for the love of $deity don't hold onto old tech that you think "Well it used to be good enough!".
Let's not forget that there are many other factors that influence a persons abilty to do math.
I would like to see this data as part of a trend instead of a one-shot sample. (i.e. give the same test every year to every x-year student, and then repeat for 30 years)
And let's test them again as adults to see if they actualy remember anything.
-----History I've lived all my life in Canada so I don't know how things went elsewhere, but my generation was the 'first' to be taught in all-metric. Calculators (cheap enough for kids to own) were _just_ getting solar-cells so that you didn't need to worry about the battery. ------ When I was in school I was good at complicated algebra. Today I might struggle to figure out: 2b+3=13 b=?? It's about how much you use it. I became dependant on those calculators, and now my brain is mush thanks to having a PC handy.
I can easily remember a dozen different DOS commands that I still use to trick Windows into behaving the way I want it to. I have a tough time remembering the 6 *nix commands that I need to use the computer.
lazy ? Check spoon-fed ignorant ? Check unable to grasp simple concepts to make my daily life easier ? Check unwilling to learn new information ? Check
Remember about several months ago there was a strong rumour that Apple would start using AMD-64 chips in it's product line?
Considering IBM is making a bunch of those chips AND gave AMD the 90nm process on a golden platter, I think this new story fits nicely with a possible x86-64 move by Apple.
Disclaimer: I don't like Macs, and I don't like how the UI is a candy-coated, spoon-fed, bile that is forced upon the users who use them.
I think the hardware and capability of Macs are awe-inspiring. I remember unpacking my brand-new 386DX-40, and seeing my buddy use his Mac to edit full-motion video as if it were a VCR+camcorder.
I suspect that PC's are just now getting to the level of capability that Macs have honed in on years ago. All we need now is a UI.
IBM: OS/2 Runs DOS better then DOS & Windows better then Windows (But got royally screwed when win32 code started showing up.) RIP
OS/2 Tight, efficient, secure. Mac-OS?? Tight, secure, (and for most efficient) Linux: only OS with a hope of dethrone'ing MS
Imaging the market-share potential of an x86-64 operating system plus a Macs "fit & finish", plus open-source roots.
I wonder how they will solve the issue of slow searches because it is a decentralized network. Do I have to propagate my search through several users, who may be really slow, before I can find what I want?
KDE 3.3.2 was tagged today, so we should see a new bug fix release of KDE in the first or second week of December. Earlier this past week, the plans for a KDE 3.4 release were also finalized. This will be the last major KDE 3 release before KDE 4. KDE 4 will make use of the Qt 4 library which promises to be quite a revolution for KDE and all Qt applications, but will break binary compatibility with previous releases.
The release schedule for KDE 3.4 plans for an alpha release December 3, a beta release January 7, and a final release March 16 2005. The 3.4 release will bring a large number of features and functionality enhancements over previous KDE 3 releases. Here are some of the features already implemented: Hardware Support
- Support for special keyboard keys on Dell Inspiron and ASUS laptops. - A new battery monitor (under development). - media:/ addition to the KDE I/O subsystem to list devices on the system. KHTML and Konqueror
Konqueror
- KHTML has undergone major work lately, though much of it will appear in KDE 3.3.2. Merging with Safari fixes continues, alone with new work and fixes by KDE developers. Site compatibility continues to improve, stability is very much improved, and KWallet no longer blocks Konqueror while waiting for a password. - Support for multiple site logins with KWallet (for all protocols, but not HTML form completions yet) added. - A notifier was added to visually indicate when user-agent spoofing is active. - KHTML plug-ins are now configurable, so the user can selectively disable ones that are not used. This does not include Netscape-style plug-ins. - Netscape plug-in in CPU usage can be manually lowered, and plug-ins are more stable. - Over the past couple of months, confirmed KHTML and Konqueror bug reports have been on a significant decline as bugs are fixed more rapidly and fewer are reported. E-Mail and Personal Information Management
- Major improvements in synchronization, including support for synchronizing between two PCs. - Enhanced support for groupware servers, including Exchange 2000, OpenGroupware, Kolab 1 and 2, SLOX, Groupwise, and eGroupware.
SLOX
- XFace support for associating faces with mail and news articles. - Blogging and journal support. - KMail supports KWallet. - Client-side IMAP search support. - Improved drag and drop in KMail. - Improved anti-spam support in KMail. - Uncountable other e-mail, organizer and address-book enhancements. Kopete
- Novell Groupwise and Lotus Sametime protocol support added. - Support for adding URLs to bookmarks. - Drag and drop of files and contacts. - The NetMeeting plug-in now allows the use of arbitrary applications to start a chat. - Support for incoming MSN messages that are handwritten. - An adium look-alike chat window style. KPDF
- KPDF includes new numerous new features including: - New rendering engine. - Optimizations and enhancements for zoom, search, and thumbnails. - Better printing (using Postscript directly). - Support for password protected PDFs. - Image extraction support. - Nicer user interface in general. Libraries
- QCA - A complete cryptography architecture. - Usage of GCC 3.4 symbol visibility functionality for much improved application startup time. - Optimizations of various styles and other components. - Cleanup and reworking of KJSEmbed to make it much more functional. - Password dialog gives feedback on the relative strength of new passwords. Desktop / General
- KDM theme support. - Numerous window manager enhancements, including indicators for remote applications. - Major Kicker panel reworking, with support for hiding tray icons. - Empty password support (password-less wallets) in KWallet.
KWallett
- Support for setting the clock with NTP. - Completely redesigned, more flexible trash system. Other Cool Things We Might See
As if the "internet-generaton" isn't full enough of themselves, why dear $deity are blogs so bloody popular?
I just don't get it. If you are so self-absorbed that you feel the need to publish every thought & whim about yourself on the web (as if the anybody on the planet actually cared about you), how/why would you then go searching for and reading other peoples mutterings?
As a previous person stated, there used to be a barrier to entry that prevented a lot of this drivel from poluting the electrons; but alas now it's easy to whine and pout in public.
I think Fight Club got it right: "You are not a beautiful & unique butterfly." We are faulty-carbon units that need a swift kick in the ass more then we are getting.
People please, get over yourselves. * If you agree with anything that I have stated here, please come to my blog at http://blah.blah/ at sign my guestbook! **
*PS: I was not refering to any of the beautiful butterflies that visit/. **PPS: For the humour impaired - I was joking
If I was in the market for a 2-seat super-efficient car, why would I buy one from a manufacturer that has limited support/service options?
Compare the Zap to Honda's Insight http://automobiles.honda.com/models/model _overview.asp?ModelName=Insight 60/66 mpg city/highway (I can't view the Toyota Prius because of evil plugin-requirements.)
Honda, has a proven track record of quality automobiles. Zap, in Europe? I don't know. Colour me ignorant.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm an idiot; but what about using VPN's to secure and mesh these P2P hubs together?
Each PC that wants to share data, acts as a hub with x-number of tunnels going out at one time. The content of each hub could be spidered and locally cached. (kind of like combining a router-cache with a Freenet hub)
It might be slower (like DC++) but you could setup groups of peers that get preferential bandwidth. BUT you could always add a swarm-like functinality of BT.
a) secure from **AA (as long as you don't let them into your peer-group) b) distributed load (no central server to take down) c) because it is a VPN, you don't need to worry a firewall because YOU initiate the connection and keep it open. {I do know that you are fubar if the firewall admin blocks the ports, but wouldn't you be SOL anyway?}
I'm an idiot who frequently talks out of his own ass.
If I had any money I would have bought AMD when it was at $5. But I still thinks it's a very good buy right now too. In a recent article at/. , http://www.theinquirer.net/ , or http://www.theregister.co.uk/ , One of the Dell bosses was quoted as saying that AMD couldn't meet demand for server chips.
Add to that tidbit the fact that AMD just partnered with ANOTHER foundry, (when their existing one isn't even running near capacity) I think that spells a huge AMD + Dell love-fest soon.
Yeah I know. I do use iTunes too,(but only for sync'ing my iPod.
I do see your point. I would rather have 1Gig of free ram doing nothing, then being maxed out when I do want it. I guess I just like the idea of getting the most efficient package I can find.
I am not a programmer, but I do admire the work/effort required to make quality code small and efficient. IMHO it seems like to many programs have a lot of bloat.
I am not sure what you are looking at, but I have foorbar running on my box right now. (v.82) and it is as small as as the title bar and about 2" long.
Perhaps you are just looking at the playlist.
Remember how you could set WinAmp in Window-shade mode? As big as the title bar, but only showing the play/stop/FF/Rew buttons?
That is how mine is setup. That is my definition of minimalistic.
...4 seperate units with clearly designed roles....
umm, given how abstract that collection looks, I'd say they need to divide into about 5 MORE groups or atleast better defined/organize groups. Haven't these people ever designed a Db? .
1. telecomm (subscriptions, and telephony) 2. media (music & movies) 3. Advertising
Slashdot Mirror
In this era of online-capable = must-have feature, why don't they create an up-to-date version of XvsT ?
I still play the original, even though it is a crash-tastic and bug-ridden experience on a modern OS, it is still fun when it works.
OR is this what the MMORPG star-trek world is moving towards? Might that be the end-all/be-all climax to the ST:Galaxies world?
But the reason that it's a bad idea (as posted by several others already), is that system ram is MUCH slower then video ram.
This feels like Deja Vu all over again.
I thought we were supposed to hate and graphic card that uses System RAM ?!?!
My guess is either:
a) Nvidia & ATi want more profit/card then they are getting. Onboard RAM is expensive so let's try this trick again.
b) PCI-E is honestly and truly better able to keep up with the proformance and memory requirements that moden gamers require in a gaming box.
I think it's all about the $$.
I missed one major point when I submitted that reply.
I was there because they were trying to make it do 'new' neato-wow things. The owner didn't understand why the 386 running DOS that was printing to a dot-matrix printer (untill it died, and the manufacturer was out of business) wanted to print to a networked office laser printer.
I could get it to connect and print, but the fonts were all different. That wasn't good enough. So owner of the company wanted me to re-write all the PCL code so that it would look the same on the laser, (pulling from a specific tray based on paper colour, etc...)
His other option was to upgrade to a newer version of the software (which was available).
I asked about this: his answer; "I will upgrade it when that PC dies."
He was only delaying the upgrade because he was a cheap-fuck who thought I had nothing better to do with my time then rewite code that he wasn't planning on keeping.
I am the guy who installed the multi-function printer. His in-house BASIC expert said: "I don't want to do it, it's your machine, you do it."
You don't rebuild a VW-Bug just to use up the remaining fuel in the tank.
I know I will get flamed by some out-of-work programmers out there,
.
but...
There are too many companies that refuse to move out of the computing Bronze-Age; bite the bullet and upgrade.
The town that I work in (Blue-collar auto-industry) is filled with tool & die shops. Typical scenerio: The owner left the assembly line of Ford/GM/whatever 20 years ago and created his own company. He bought a DOS app to run his business on a 286-server/workstation, and he is surprised and insulted to find out that XP won't run on it.
I have seen shops that Net revenue >$10 million/year, and they depend on a app written in BASIC!!!! as their life-blood.
Holy shit people, it might be time to upgrade!
There is a reason we don't (all) still use Horse & buggys. There is still a market for companies to make horse-shoes and buggy whips, (and I bet that company has a monopoly) but there are valid reasons to upgrade.
There will always be a need for Legacy-based skills, but for the love of $deity don't hold onto old tech that you think "Well it used to be good enough!"
Let's not forget that there are many other factors that influence a persons abilty to do math.
I would like to see this data as part of a trend instead of a one-shot sample. (i.e. give the same test every year to every x-year student, and then repeat for 30 years)
And let's test them again as adults to see if they actualy remember anything.
-----History
I've lived all my life in Canada so I don't know how things went elsewhere, but my generation was the 'first' to be taught in all-metric. Calculators (cheap enough for kids to own) were _just_ getting solar-cells so that you didn't need to worry about the battery.
------
When I was in school I was good at complicated algebra. Today I might struggle to figure out: 2b+3=13 b=??
It's about how much you use it. I became dependant on those calculators, and now my brain is mush thanks to having a PC handy.
I can easily remember a dozen different DOS commands that I still use to trick Windows into behaving the way I want it to. I have a tough time remembering the 6 *nix commands that I need to use the computer.
lazy ? Check
spoon-fed ignorant ? Check
unable to grasp simple concepts to make my daily life easier ? Check
unwilling to learn new information ? Check
Dammit, I'm my dad.
Remember about several months ago there was a strong rumour that Apple would start using AMD-64 chips in it's product line?
Considering IBM is making a bunch of those chips AND gave AMD the 90nm process on a golden platter, I think this new story fits nicely with a possible x86-64 move by Apple.
Disclaimer: I don't like Macs, and I don't like how the UI is a candy-coated, spoon-fed, bile that is forced upon the users who use them.
I think the hardware and capability of Macs are awe-inspiring. I remember unpacking my brand-new 386DX-40, and seeing my buddy use his Mac to edit full-motion video as if it were a VCR+camcorder.
I suspect that PC's are just now getting to the level of capability that Macs have honed in on years ago. All we need now is a UI.
IBM: OS/2 Runs DOS better then DOS & Windows better then Windows (But got royally screwed when win32 code started showing up.) RIP
OS/2 Tight, efficient, secure.
Mac-OS?? Tight, secure, (and for most efficient)
Linux: only OS with a hope of dethrone'ing MS
Imaging the market-share potential of an x86-64 operating system plus a Macs "fit & finish", plus open-source roots.
Ack... stupid slash... I mean user.... I didn't mean to hit submit...
..... Why not include an RSS feed of .torrents
So to continue...
That will a) allow 'quick' distribution of new releases.
b) Allow websites to search for content based on what is published.
Incase of slashdotting:
KDE 3.3.2 was tagged today, so we should see a new bug fix release of KDE in the first or second week of December. Earlier this past week, the plans for a KDE 3.4 release were also finalized. This will be the last major KDE 3 release before KDE 4. KDE 4 will make use of the Qt 4 library which promises to be quite a revolution for KDE and all Qt applications, but will break binary compatibility with previous releases.
The release schedule for KDE 3.4 plans for an alpha release December 3, a beta release January 7, and a final release March 16 2005. The 3.4 release will bring a large number of features and functionality enhancements over previous KDE 3 releases. Here are some of the features already implemented:
Hardware Support
- Support for special keyboard keys on Dell Inspiron and ASUS laptops.
- A new battery monitor (under development).
- media:/ addition to the KDE I/O subsystem to list devices on the system.
KHTML and Konqueror
Konqueror
- KHTML has undergone major work lately, though much of it will appear in KDE 3.3.2. Merging with Safari fixes continues, alone with new work and fixes by KDE developers. Site compatibility continues to improve, stability is very much improved, and KWallet no longer blocks Konqueror while waiting for a password.
- Support for multiple site logins with KWallet (for all protocols, but not HTML form completions yet) added.
- A notifier was added to visually indicate when user-agent spoofing is active.
- KHTML plug-ins are now configurable, so the user can selectively disable ones that are not used. This does not include Netscape-style plug-ins.
- Netscape plug-in in CPU usage can be manually lowered, and plug-ins are more stable.
- Over the past couple of months, confirmed KHTML and Konqueror bug reports have been on a significant decline as bugs are fixed more rapidly and fewer are reported.
E-Mail and Personal Information Management
- Major improvements in synchronization, including support for synchronizing between two PCs.
- Enhanced support for groupware servers, including Exchange 2000, OpenGroupware, Kolab 1 and 2, SLOX, Groupwise, and eGroupware.
SLOX
- XFace support for associating faces with mail and news articles.
- Blogging and journal support.
- KMail supports KWallet.
- Client-side IMAP search support.
- Improved drag and drop in KMail.
- Improved anti-spam support in KMail.
- Uncountable other e-mail, organizer and address-book enhancements.
Kopete
- Novell Groupwise and Lotus Sametime protocol support added.
- Support for adding URLs to bookmarks.
- Drag and drop of files and contacts.
- The NetMeeting plug-in now allows the use of arbitrary applications to start a chat.
- Support for incoming MSN messages that are handwritten.
- An adium look-alike chat window style.
KPDF
- KPDF includes new numerous new features including:
- New rendering engine.
- Optimizations and enhancements for zoom, search, and thumbnails.
- Better printing (using Postscript directly).
- Support for password protected PDFs.
- Image extraction support.
- Nicer user interface in general.
Libraries
- QCA - A complete cryptography architecture.
- Usage of GCC 3.4 symbol visibility functionality for much improved application startup time.
- Optimizations of various styles and other components.
- Cleanup and reworking of KJSEmbed to make it much more functional.
- Password dialog gives feedback on the relative strength of new passwords.
Desktop / General
- KDM theme support.
- Numerous window manager enhancements, including indicators for remote applications.
- Major Kicker panel reworking, with support for hiding tray icons.
- Empty password support (password-less wallets) in KWallet.
KWallett
- Support for setting the clock with NTP.
- Completely redesigned, more flexible trash system.
Other Cool Things We Might See
All of these feature
As if the "internet-generaton" isn't full enough of themselves, why dear $deity are blogs so bloody popular?
/.
I just don't get it. If you are so self-absorbed that you feel the need to publish every thought & whim about yourself on the web (as if the anybody on the planet actually cared about you), how/why would you then go searching for and reading other peoples mutterings?
As a previous person stated, there used to be a barrier to entry that prevented a lot of this drivel from poluting the electrons; but alas now it's easy to whine and pout in public.
I think Fight Club got it right: "You are not a beautiful & unique butterfly." We are faulty-carbon units that need a swift kick in the ass more then we are getting.
People please, get over yourselves. * If you agree with anything that I have stated here, please come to my blog at http://blah.blah/ at sign my guestbook! **
*PS: I was not refering to any of the beautiful butterflies that visit
**PPS: For the humour impaired - I was joking
If I was in the market for a 2-seat super-efficient car, why would I buy one from a manufacturer that has limited support/service options?
l _overview .asp?ModelName=Insight
Compare the Zap to Honda's Insight
http://automobiles.honda.com/models/mode
60/66 mpg city/highway
(I can't view the Toyota Prius because of evil plugin-requirements.)
Honda, has a proven track record of quality automobiles.
Zap, in Europe? I don't know. Colour me ignorant.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm an idiot; but what about using VPN's to secure and mesh these P2P hubs together?
Each PC that wants to share data, acts as a hub with x-number of tunnels going out at one time. The content of each hub could be spidered and locally cached. (kind of like combining a router-cache with a Freenet hub)
It might be slower (like DC++) but you could setup groups of peers that get preferential bandwidth.
BUT you could always add a swarm-like functinality of BT.
a) secure from **AA (as long as you don't let them into your peer-group)
b) distributed load (no central server to take down)
c) because it is a VPN, you don't need to worry a firewall because YOU initiate the connection and keep it open. {I do know that you are fubar if the firewall admin blocks the ports, but wouldn't you be SOL anyway?}
d) well, I just think it sounds kida cool. =)
I do not get SG:A so I have to d'load the episodes via bittorrent.
"The Eye" has already aired, and is available from several BT sites. Decent episode.
Or, if you are lucky (like I believe I am) you will find a job where you have fun.
I love computers. After "working" on them for 8 hours, I go home and "play" on them for 10 more hours.
I honestly can't believe these people actually pay me to do this job. I'd do the same thing if they only paid me minimum wage.
I enjoy what I do.
Let me get this out of the way:
/. , http://www.theinquirer.net/ , or http://www.theregister.co.uk/ , One of the Dell bosses was quoted as saying that AMD couldn't meet demand for server chips.
I'm an idiot who frequently talks out of his own ass.
If I had any money I would have bought AMD when it was at $5. But I still thinks it's a very good buy right now too. In a recent article at
Add to that tidbit the fact that AMD just partnered with ANOTHER foundry, (when their existing one isn't even running near capacity) I think that spells a huge AMD + Dell love-fest soon.
I'd buy some if I could.
Yeah I know. I do use iTunes too,(but only for sync'ing my iPod.
I do see your point. I would rather have 1Gig of free ram doing nothing, then being maxed out when I do want it. I guess I just like the idea of getting the most efficient package I can find.
I am not a programmer, but I do admire the work/effort required to make quality code small and efficient. IMHO it seems like to many programs have a lot of bloat.
# Audio formats supported "out-of-the-box": WAV, AIFF, VOC, AU, SND, Ogg Vorbis, MPC, MP2, MP3, MPEG-4 AAC
# Audio formats supported through official addons: FLAC, OggFLAC, Monkey's Audio, WavPack, Speex, CDDA, TFMX, SPC, various MOD types; extraction on-the-fly from RAR, 7-ZIP & ZIP archives
I am not sure what you are looking at, but I have foorbar running on my box right now. (v.82) and it is as small as as the title bar and about 2" long.
Perhaps you are just looking at the playlist.
Remember how you could set WinAmp in Window-shade mode? As big as the title bar, but only showing the play/stop/FF/Rew buttons?
That is how mine is setup. That is my definition of minimalistic.
Foobar....
I have been using it for a very long time.
15000+ songs in the playlist, and it only used 2MB of ram.
I stopped using WinAmp at v1.8
I strongly suggest trying FooBar2000 http://foobar2000.com/
I have loaded up the playlist with 15,000 songs, and it only used 2MB of RAM!!!
There are extensive plugin's available, it is compatable with shoutcast.
FooBar takes a very minimalistic approach to it's UI. You can add bell's & whistle's & visualizations if you want.
...4 seperate units with clearly designed roles ....
umm, given how abstract that collection looks, I'd say they need to divide into about 5 MORE groups or atleast better defined/organize groups. Haven't these people ever designed a Db?
.
1. telecomm (subscriptions, and telephony)
2. media (music & movies)
3. Advertising
Do they just try too hard to be elitest?
I agree with most of what you said, as I am sure 90% of the "correctly" educate public will, I disagree with 'quality' statement of Frances' reactors.
IANASM (smart man) but I think that the Canadian CANDU reactors are an order of magntude safer then anything any other country has designed.
There is an easy answer as to why more MP3's are getting deleted then downloaded;
We have already downloaded everything, now we are just removing the crap.
=)
Does this study take into account the lost productivity due to taking naps in the stiffeling heat?
Cooler temps = more alert workers. (lots of Hot coffee to 'warm-up' helps too!)