Re:Apparently they never heard of the Cappuccino P
on
Mac mini to PC Hack
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· Score: 1
I tend to think this is a problem with all HP equipment.
I bought a 2.4 GHZ PC for my Daughter - and had problems with it powering down unexpectedly. I shipped it back to the company for them to wave a dead chicken at it - I got it back, and it did the same thing!!
I decided to do a little research, and on a hunch I spec'd out the power requirements of the system, and what was provided by the power supply.
To make a long story short, the power supply did not have enough wattage to power both the motherboard/cpu and all attached peripheral devices. I ripped out the anaemic power supply, and put an industrial strength model (all the wattage needed and then some) I had laying around. I have had no problems with that machine since.
Warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on - particularly when the cost is your time and money lost during the time it is in the shop. This experience lead me to build my next machine myself - which I did, to my own specs, and haven't had any problems with at all.
Right now I am trying to get my wife and daughter to agree to replace their Celerons with the Mac Mini; I have had no luck getting them to cross over to Linux - but I had them salivating over the Mini. This has two benefits: it will allow me to increase the size of my Beowulf cluster (canibalizing their old desktop machines), as well as lower the amount of administration I have to deal with (IE virus hell). After that financial disaster passes, I might get one for my own use (I want a machine to use as a multitrack recording studio):)
My highschool offered its first computer science course, and I took the first class.
We had Apple computers running Basic, NEC (or was it NCR?) machines running Fortran, 2 terminals and a printer/terminal connected to a mini computer at school district headquarters.
I don't recall the specifics of the version of fortran - all I recall is you would actually boot the machine into a fortran interpreter, then you would type in your program by hand and run it. We might have been able to save our application onto a 5 1/4" floppy disk not sure...
The only printer was the terminal - so if you wanted a printout, you had to login via terminal/printer and output your program contents (provided you had typed it in previously and saved it) and/or run it to capture the output. I want to say the system could run both basic and fortran applications - so access to the printer/terminal was always tight - particularly if a project was due.
This was my first experience with a time-sharing system - we had quotas - that if we went over the number of hours alotted we would be denied access. The eggheads in our group loved the mini and tuned up their noses at the little micros in the lab.
I played dungeon (precursor to the Zork trilogy)on the county's computer, in addition to doing my assigned tasks, and spent many hours in the computer room after school. I recall one kid claiming to have changed his grades on that machine (apparently all of our grades were entered in the mini through terminals in the school office) - but I never validated that.
We did a lot of flow charts and wrote our programs out before entering them in the system (or we were supposed to). Just glad we did not have to deal with paper tape/punch cards - although punch cards were to revisit me in a few years (I unintentionally played 52 card pick-up with a deck of them when delivering them to a data center - but that is another story).
I wonder what kind of programming classes are available in highschools today? My daughter took a course involving HTML and CSS markup - but I don't recall seeing any programming classes on her curriculum. Are kids learning java/perl/python like we learned basic/fortran?
You make a good point - what if I do a google search and come up with the same link as the person who was prosecuted for this. Whould google be responsible for compensation to the RIAA? And how in the world are you going to filter out all the 'legal' and 'illegal' content links for literally trillions of urls?
I don't think this will hold up in the long run - because it seems like all these lower court rulings are stupidly attacking the very fabric of the internet itself - instead of focussing on the real culprit (who provides the content, versus who points to it). You should be able to point to any url without fear of prosecution. It is the responsibility of the site that contains the actual content to ensure that it is appropriate for external dissemination.
This is equivalent to me being arrested for giving someone directions to a house - "where is 5555 Green Lane?". It just so happens that the owners are doing something illegal - so I am culpible too? I don't think so.
There is also the Zope framework - which has an embedded http server, ftp server, ZODB (zope object database), and has python embedded as the scripting language (so you are not limited to DTML/TAL for calculation intensive things in your display code - and you can build apps which are called externally to harness the power of the OS - or not if you want more control of what a user can do.
The system has a built-in access control mechanism which is completely configurable by the user. All configurations are managed via a GUI interface via web browser (again with access controls - which also allow you to assign subsections of the site to certain people to administer, while blocking other sections from other admins/developers) - no command line configuration files - other than basic startup configs; everything else is in the database itself.
Object database is very easy to use - and fast to search; build a datastructure in python, then apply it to the ZODB APIs to load it into the object database. That's it. The database/http server recognizes various file types - so you can upload and download binary datatypes and launch supporting applications (pdf, word, cvs etc..)automagically.
The system also has database plugins that give you the capability to talk to traditional relational databases - but I only use that for legacy databases, I use the ZODB exclusively for my own deployments.
Scalability is ensured via running Zope as a Zeo server (module to do this included - just a configuration change and restart to take effect) - Zeo allows multiple servers to syncronize their databases in realtime, as well as providing the ability for external applications to manipulate the database directly (for automation purposes). This allows you to do such things as put an SLB infront of a cluster of Zeo servers for High Availability; you could also use it to syncronize local servers (lets say you have an office in California, and another in Virginia - each team would access their local server for faster access - and less network traffic across your longhaul circuit - yet allowing changes to be almost immediately available to both sites).
You can also run Apache/Squid infront of the Zope servers to provide better security and faster access for end users.
There are a whole host of solutions that have already been built as python products and are easily installed/removed to/from an existing system. I am running plone - full featured CRM, zwiki - zope wikiwiki web, silva - XML authoring and publishing system, and the list goes on and on (this in addition to my own custom applications - all seamlessly integrated).
The list goes on and on...
I am sold on Zope - and am making it work on various projects in the real world. You might try stepping outside the old Java/relational database mode and give an object database a whirl - its pretty cool.
(one of the things that most impresses me with the database is that its return time from complex searches has been flat from spin-up of the original to having gigabytes worth of data - 5 seconds or less in all cases. It is really amazing).
I tried Dvorak several years ago, and wasn't able to get it - my brain is too thoroughly trained in the word patterns of the standard keyboard. It would not be more efficient in my case.
I learned to touch type on a manual typewriter back in 1983 - 22 years ago; you had to really strike the keys to get it to imprint on the paper. I still have a tendency to bang the hell out of my keyboard when I get going fast. I use Microsoft natural keyboards everywhere now (at home I have 2 hooked up to 2 KVMs - one is radio controlled - at work I use one) - because several years ago I started to get carple tunnel symptoms, and the natural keyboard eliminated the problem ever since.
The two best keyboards I ever used was the keyboard on the Toshiba T1200 laptop (nice clicky/springy keys) and the IBM Selectric typewriter - again a solid click for each key strike - and buffered travel to the bottom rather than hitting a brick wall (like current keyboards). If Microsoft would redesign the natural keyboard to have that feel - I would be hooked for life.
On that note - does anyone know of a good keyboard produced today that has that old springy-clicky feel that I am talking about (preferably with a split keyboard layout like the natural keyboard)?
I am able to recognize a joke. Sadly, it was not a good joke (the kind that makes me laugh so hard I fall off my chair, roll around on the floor, gag, and spew Pepsi from my nostrils). Instead we were treated to a pitiful flacid wisecrack with only passing resemblance to a real joke.
However on the off chance that the person making the remark was a really stupid individual, I gave them the benefit of the doubt.
In firewall terms a DMZ is a subnet off the firewall that will allow traffic to enter your network from the outside. This is the best way to provide services to external entities without compromising the rest of your network.
We use an internally developed chat client (don't know if it uses IRC protocol or not) at my job, as well.
Its nice for avoiding the time wasted in walking around and face to face, particularly for one-off questions ('where's lunch?', 'what was that sql query you said you were going to get me?', 'who's your daddy?'), as well as providing an outlet for stress ('hey - buzz Neebaum again...hehehehe', 'Don is a f*!#wad!', 'If that m*&#$Y comes over here to shoulder-surf one more time...so help me...'), and as an early warning system ('phb incoming!!!! scatter!!').
My first - and only - 'high-end' keyboard was a Roland.
I was living in England at the time, and me and my band-mates took to hanging out in Cambridge and prowling the music stores looking for deals. I wanted, but could not afford a top of the line Yamaha DX-1 - so instead settled for a Roland JX-3P. This was 1983/84 timeframe. Rumor had it that Thomas Dolby acquired his keyboards from the same shop (but that is highly speculative - although interestingly the linked article does mention him - so my machine could have been from the same lot:p ). I never did buy the DCO controller unit - and spent many hours programming the thing through the push button interface (perhaps why I ended up becoming a computer programmer?). It also included a pitch bender (to get the effect equivalent to slurring notes) and a rudimentary midi interface - which I never used.
I remember seeing a Moog synth - a Prodigy in the same store - slightly used - and I kick myself for not getting that one instead - again lacked the cash flow. I did purchase a BOSS DR 110 drum machine which I used for composing, and when our drummer would crap out on us; I ended up loaning that to a friend in later years - and never saw it again (friend having moved with no return address). Also acquired a BOSS DM-3 Analog Delay floor switch unit - used that as a general purpose delay for all kinds of ambient effects - and still own it today (great little unit) and use it with my guitar.
When I came back to the states I got an electrician to modify the power supply on the keyboard to handle US power. After a few years I gave it to my sister who was studying music in college at the time. No idea where it is or what it is doing now...(sigh)
This new Korg sounds interesting (combining both my love of computers and music in one device). I wonder if I will have to sell my firstborn to afford it? Has anyone priced these? Would it be better for me just to get a good midi capable soundcard and some computer software combined with a cheaper keyboard?
I can assure you if a computer has the ability to input, process, and output foo (be it in the form of graphics, printed paper, or a stream of 1s and 0s) - someone will use if for something useful.
I had an Amiga back in the day; this is when the shiny new IBM PC-XT was the big thing, and clones were just starting to come out. I was happily typing away in AmigaWord, or playing Artic Fox (an early EA game title), or running DOS applications on an IBM PC emulator, on a machine with a graphical interface that blew everthing out of the water.
This machine was 10 years ahead of its time. Files that I created on that machine still reside on my Linux workstation today.
A computer is a computer; what matters is how you can make it work for you, and if you are happy with the outcome.
The supreme court has already ruled in similar cases that the maker of a tool can't be held liable for misuse of the tool if that misuse is not the major use of the tool. Bittorrent, for example, can be shown to have primarily beneficial uses - so you can not ban the use of it, or attack the author for the actions of some bad apples.
This would be like suing the manufacturer of a baseball bat because someone used it to commit a murder. That doesn't follow, and the court system already has presidence along these lines that any lawyer worth his salt will bring forward in court.
They can pass the law, but it will be struck down in the courts once they try to enforce it.
I can see using XML constructs to imbed documentation inside of source code so you can later extract it to whatever format you want.
I can see using XML as a transport encoding mechanism for moving data from one location to another - and for translating that data from one data management system (say a relational database) to another incompatible system (say to an object database).
I can see using XML as the native format for all my writings (so that, again, I can translate to any other format I like now, or 200 years from now).
I can see using XML as a configuration language for applications - so I can create a standard shared language between all of my apps.
But for other tasks such as generating code or providing a macro layer to an application, I would just use the language I am already using to accomplish the same thing - and probably do it more elegantly/expressively for people trying to get something done fast - which is really what code generation/automation is about (and I must say that code generation should never replace well designed libraries of routines).
As for using it to port code to other languages --> this is bad, for several reasons, not the least of which is the optimized structure in one language can be a total dog in another; to effectively do this you will need to build some sort of super optimization library to restructure the output code for every possible language variation.
This is interesting from a laboratory perspective. As far as I am concerned it bombs from a practical perspective. Most of the XML I write is via a wysiwyg editor for all my first drafts - then I tweak as needed - simply because it is tedious to use. I can't imagine using it as my primary programming language.
Any songs you like - as long as you are not transmitting it to the public and not charging money for the performance (transmission would be recordings, radio or internet transmission or the like).
Extract from the Copyright Law:
Exemptions: (4) performance of a nondramatic literary or musical work otherwise than in a transmission to the public, without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and without payment of any fee or other compensation for the performance to any of its performers, promoters, or organizers, if--
(A) there is no direct or indirect admission charge
So you can play any songs you like, as long as not making money off the deal. You could basically stand on a street corner and perform any song you like.
You are under the misinformed impression that you have less rights than you really have.
Is it even possible to create an original melody anymore?
Who cares? Unless you intend on becoming a rock star for the RIAA - why should that prevent you from writing music? Additionally, given the sheer amount of classical and other music in the public domain, I am sure a smart lawyer can find prior art for just about every contemporary melody out there (has anyone tried that to defend against frivilous lawsuits, I wonder)? Music is just like any other endeavor, it builds upon the forms that came before - so you don't have much to worry about (unless you are unlucky - but that is like winning the lotto - and even if you do, you have some options to fight something frivilous).
If you want to impact the under 21 crowd - why not promote streaming audio of all-indie internet 'radio' stations, as one example? Get it visible in the eyes of the young people; believe me - if they have money to spend on CDs, MP3 players and ripping their music on their computer - they have a presence on the internet, and are able to be reached.
Mostly it starts with word of mouth - if you are a teen who wants to make a difference - SMS all your friend's cell phones with the URL to your favorite Indy station etc. (be creative)
The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Get stepping...
What are you complaining about? If you are under 21, you have all the time in the world to pickup a musical instrument. And why does money have to be attached to it? As I said, you can just jam with friends who share the same interest (I've done that when I was a young man - and enjoyed it more than listening to any album I have ever heard. I played trumpet for 10 years, and took piano lessons a long time ago; I do know how to read music - took some music composition in college, and played keyboards for a group I jammed with when I lived in England; have written and recorded my own music - and I was dirt poor at the time and any money I didn't spend on my car and food went into the music).
I'm 40 now and teaching myself (along with my 5 year old) to play the guitar. Not only am I getting enjoyment from it - my 5 year old will have a skill she can use to entertain herself and people around her for years to come - without putting a penny into the RIAA's bank account.
Music is a part of life - make it an active, rather than a passive event.
Its like the scene in Demolition Man (the movie) where all that the radio stations play is old advertising jingles...
Music has a whole host of attributes: 1. Tune/melody/rythum(sic) 2. Lyrics 3. Score/instrumentation (the instruments and harmonies selected to support the melody) 4. Skill (singing, musicianship)
Listen to the Beatles after they went into the studio with George Martin. Listen to Aerosmyth. These are masters of their art - and hence why their albums continue to sell today.
Most of today's top 'artists' (and I use that phrase loosely) on the POP chart have 1 or sometimes none of those attributes. (I realize there are a few exceptions - we are talking about the overall quality of music - that has dropped off in quantity since the 1980s).
Sadly, until most listeners can tell the difference between Filet Mignon, and Dog Food and spend their dollars accordingly, the music industry will continue to feed us crap.
Better yet - why not form an indy band and get some gigs (or just play in the garage for your own amusement). That is probably more enjoyable, and certainly costs less money over the long run.
My family went out to buy shoes last year. My youngest - 5 year old - daughter wanted 'Yu-gi-oh' sneakers (she liked to watch the show on TV and had the trading card game) and so that is what we got her.
The first time she wore them to school was also the last. Apparently the boys in class embarrassed her and told her girls couldn't wear shoes like that. The shoes have since languished in her closet, she no longer watches the show, and has abandoned the playing cards.
I have tried all sorts of things to get her to wear them to school - boys be damned. But the stigma was too much for her to take, and so the shoes sit unused, unloved and unwanted.
The message was clear - there are certain things that are okay for boys to do, but not okay for girls. By the time she is a woman, she will have had that message reinforced thousands of times in subtle and not-so-subtle ways - through interactions with others, messages in the media, and misinterpretation of 'scientific' studies.
Both my wife and my daughter can run rings around me in Math (of which I have no deep love or interest). My wife learned to love Math early on - her grandmother would get her to count to 1000 when she would visit as a young child. Later her father, who is a mathematician inspired her to learn and see math in everything around her. My oldest daughter is 17 and a scrapper (she would literally get into fights with boys who tried to enforce their world-view upon her - and never lost such battles). She is an A-B student who makes straight A's in Math (she is taking Pre-Calc this year). I hope my little one learns a thing or two from her mother and big sister.
Everyone is an individual with talents they are born with, but also a large opportunity to develop new talents whose limits are only circumscribed by their own determination to follow through. This is how Spud Webb at 5'7" can play in the NBA, and these women suceeded in a field dominated by men.
Actually demand for pilots is projected to outstrip the pool of qualified pilots by 2008.
Granted, most of the jobs will be in cargo transport, and regional carriers (the big boys are moving to larger aircraft, that are more automated - i.e. don't need a flight engineer - so jobs in these companies will be more difficult to get).
So, given that, pilots will still have a bit of an edge when it comes to negotiating salaries. Its not like you can stick any pilot into an airliner and expect him to operate it safely...
Until we all have flying cars pilots will have job security.
how the heck did we get to the point where CEOs/CIOs buy bullshit that sounds cool without asking someone who knows?
That's easy: CEO/CIO from company 'A' goes to the country club with CEO/CIO from company 'B' and a friend...
Over a round of golf CEO/CIO 'A' says to CEO/CIO 'B', "We've been pretty good about keeping our costs down - we are still using '
Wordstar' as our word processor. However, my secretary says she is having trouble reading documents from other departments and outside companies. I don't know if that's true or not; what should I do?"
"Well 'A'", says CEO/CIO 'B' rolling his cigar between stubby fingers, "I'd go with the Microsoft solutions - they cut us a slick deal on lisensing, and we can hold thier *$&#^@ to the fire with our maintenance contract. Not to mention that Bill Gates is a real go-getter! (Reminds me of that Simpson boy - did real good in the junk bond market...) Our engineers approached me about using this 'open source' communist nonsense, and I told them if I couldn't hold someone's *)#(&# to the fire (or I should say someone with money) - eh Fenton?"
Lawyer Fenton, on retainer to 'B's company, looks up from scrubbing his golf balls, "Absolutely - always best to have someone with deep pockets we can sue the heck out of if their @#%^@! enterprise solution falls on its @#$$%##..."
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I tend to think this is a problem with all HP equipment.
:)
I bought a 2.4 GHZ PC for my Daughter - and had problems with it powering down unexpectedly. I shipped it back to the company for them to wave a dead chicken at it - I got it back, and it did the same thing!!
I decided to do a little research, and on a hunch I spec'd out the power requirements of the system, and what was provided by the power supply.
To make a long story short, the power supply did not have enough wattage to power both the motherboard/cpu and all attached peripheral devices. I ripped out the anaemic power supply, and put an industrial strength model (all the wattage needed and then some) I had laying around. I have had no problems with that machine since.
Warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on - particularly when the cost is your time and money lost during the time it is in the shop. This experience lead me to build my next machine myself - which I did, to my own specs, and haven't had any problems with at all.
Right now I am trying to get my wife and daughter to agree to replace their Celerons with the Mac Mini; I have had no luck getting them to cross over to Linux - but I had them salivating over the Mini. This has two benefits: it will allow me to increase the size of my Beowulf cluster (canibalizing their old desktop machines), as well as lower the amount of administration I have to deal with (IE virus hell). After that financial disaster passes, I might get one for my own use (I want a machine to use as a multitrack recording studio)
I just had a flashback to 1981...
My highschool offered its first computer science course, and I took the first class.
We had Apple computers running Basic, NEC (or was it NCR?) machines running Fortran, 2 terminals and a printer/terminal connected to a mini computer at school district headquarters.
I don't recall the specifics of the version of fortran - all I recall is you would actually boot the machine into a fortran interpreter, then you would type in your program by hand and run it. We might have been able to save our application onto a 5 1/4" floppy disk not sure...
The only printer was the terminal - so if you wanted a printout, you had to login via terminal/printer and output your program contents (provided you had typed it in previously and saved it) and/or run it to capture the output. I want to say the system could run both basic and fortran applications - so access to the printer/terminal was always tight - particularly if a project was due.
This was my first experience with a time-sharing system - we had quotas - that if we went over the number of hours alotted we would be denied access. The eggheads in our group loved the mini and tuned up their noses at the little micros in the lab.
I played dungeon (precursor to the Zork trilogy)on the county's computer, in addition to doing my assigned tasks, and spent many hours in the computer room after school. I recall one kid claiming to have changed his grades on that machine (apparently all of our grades were entered in the mini through terminals in the school office) - but I never validated that.
We did a lot of flow charts and wrote our programs out before entering them in the system (or we were supposed to). Just glad we did not have to deal with paper tape/punch cards - although punch cards were to revisit me in a few years (I unintentionally played 52 card pick-up with a deck of them when delivering them to a data center - but that is another story).
I wonder what kind of programming classes are available in highschools today? My daughter took a course involving HTML and CSS markup - but I don't recall seeing any programming classes on her curriculum. Are kids learning java/perl/python like we learned basic/fortran?
You make a good point - what if I do a google search and come up with the same link as the person who was prosecuted for this. Whould google be responsible for compensation to the RIAA? And how in the world are you going to filter out all the 'legal' and 'illegal' content links for literally trillions of urls?
I don't think this will hold up in the long run - because it seems like all these lower court rulings are stupidly attacking the very fabric of the internet itself - instead of focussing on the real culprit (who provides the content, versus who points to it). You should be able to point to any url without fear of prosecution. It is the responsibility of the site that contains the actual content to ensure that it is appropriate for external dissemination.
This is equivalent to me being arrested for giving someone directions to a house - "where is 5555 Green Lane?". It just so happens that the owners are doing something illegal - so I am culpible too? I don't think so.
What would be really neat would be if the cow asked you what part of him you wanted - and was happy to provide steaks for you...
There is also the Zope framework - which has an embedded http server, ftp server, ZODB (zope object database), and has python embedded as the scripting language (so you are not limited to DTML/TAL for calculation intensive things in your display code - and you can build apps which are called externally to harness the power of the OS - or not if you want more control of what a user can do.
The system has a built-in access control mechanism which is completely configurable by the user. All configurations are managed via a GUI interface via web browser (again with access controls - which also allow you to assign subsections of the site to certain people to administer, while blocking other sections from other admins/developers) - no command line configuration files - other than basic startup configs; everything else is in the database itself.
Object database is very easy to use - and fast to search; build a datastructure in python, then apply it to the ZODB APIs to load it into the object database. That's it. The database/http server recognizes various file types - so you can upload and download binary datatypes and launch supporting applications (pdf, word, cvs etc..)automagically.
The system also has database plugins that give you the capability to talk to traditional relational databases - but I only use that for legacy databases, I use the ZODB exclusively for my own deployments.
Scalability is ensured via running Zope as a Zeo server (module to do this included - just a configuration change and restart to take effect) - Zeo allows multiple servers to syncronize their databases in realtime, as well as providing the ability for external applications to manipulate the database directly (for automation purposes). This allows you to do such things as put an SLB infront of a cluster of Zeo servers for High Availability; you could also use it to syncronize local servers (lets say you have an office in California, and another in Virginia - each team would access their local server for faster access - and less network traffic across your longhaul circuit - yet allowing changes to be almost immediately available to both sites).
You can also run Apache/Squid infront of the Zope servers to provide better security and faster access for end users.
There are a whole host of solutions that have already been built as python products and are easily installed/removed to/from an existing system. I am running plone - full featured CRM, zwiki - zope wikiwiki web, silva - XML authoring and publishing system, and the list goes on and on (this in addition to my own custom applications - all seamlessly integrated).
The list goes on and on...
I am sold on Zope - and am making it work on various projects in the real world. You might try stepping outside the old Java/relational database mode and give an object database a whirl - its pretty cool.
(one of the things that most impresses me with the database is that its return time from complex searches has been flat from spin-up of the original to having gigabytes worth of data - 5 seconds or less in all cases. It is really amazing).
I never leave home without my trusty disguise in place.
A mole here, extra hair there, fat cheeks, sculpted cheekbones etc...
And always, always wear your shades - even on a cloudy day, or at night for that matter (they will just think you are a rockstar).
I wonder if I can hack one of those in two - and build my own split key version?
Hmmmm - *revs up the skilsaw*
I tried Dvorak several years ago, and wasn't able to get it - my brain is too thoroughly trained in the word patterns of the standard keyboard. It would not be more efficient in my case.
I learned to touch type on a manual typewriter back in 1983 - 22 years ago; you had to really strike the keys to get it to imprint on the paper. I still have a tendency to bang the hell out of my keyboard when I get going fast. I use Microsoft natural keyboards everywhere now (at home I have 2 hooked up to 2 KVMs - one is radio controlled - at work I use one) - because several years ago I started to get carple tunnel symptoms, and the natural keyboard eliminated the problem ever since.
The two best keyboards I ever used was the keyboard on the Toshiba T1200 laptop (nice clicky/springy keys) and the IBM Selectric typewriter - again a solid click for each key strike - and buffered travel to the bottom rather than hitting a brick wall (like current keyboards). If Microsoft would redesign the natural keyboard to have that feel - I would be hooked for life.
On that note - does anyone know of a good keyboard produced today that has that old springy-clicky feel that I am talking about (preferably with a split keyboard layout like the natural keyboard)?
I am able to recognize a joke. Sadly, it was not a good joke (the kind that makes me laugh so hard I fall off my chair, roll around on the floor, gag, and spew Pepsi from my nostrils). Instead we were treated to a pitiful flacid wisecrack with only passing resemblance to a real joke.
However on the off chance that the person making the remark was a really stupid individual, I gave them the benefit of the doubt.
In firewall terms a DMZ is a subnet off the firewall that will allow traffic to enter your network from the outside. This is the best way to provide services to external entities without compromising the rest of your network.
See this faq to learn more about how firewalls work.
We use an internally developed chat client (don't know if it uses IRC protocol or not) at my job, as well.
Its nice for avoiding the time wasted in walking around and face to face, particularly for one-off questions ('where's lunch?', 'what was that sql query you said you were going to get me?', 'who's your daddy?'), as well as providing an outlet for stress ('hey - buzz Neebaum again...hehehehe', 'Don is a f*!#wad!', 'If that m*&#$Y comes over here to shoulder-surf one more time...so help me...'), and as an early warning system ('phb incoming!!!! scatter!!').
Programmer/analyst $52,500-$83,250 3.6%
That doesn't look so bad...
My first - and only - 'high-end' keyboard was a Roland.
:p ). I never did buy the DCO controller unit - and spent many hours programming the thing through the push button interface (perhaps why I ended up becoming a computer programmer?). It also included a pitch bender (to get the effect equivalent to slurring notes) and a rudimentary midi interface - which I never used.
I was living in England at the time, and me and my band-mates took to hanging out in Cambridge and prowling the music stores looking for deals. I wanted, but could not afford a top of the line Yamaha DX-1 - so instead settled for a Roland JX-3P. This was 1983/84 timeframe. Rumor had it that Thomas Dolby acquired his keyboards from the same shop (but that is highly speculative - although interestingly the linked article does mention him - so my machine could have been from the same lot
I remember seeing a Moog synth - a Prodigy in the same store - slightly used - and I kick myself for not getting that one instead - again lacked the cash flow. I did purchase a BOSS DR 110 drum machine which I used for composing, and when our drummer would crap out on us; I ended up loaning that to a friend in later years - and never saw it again (friend having moved with no return address). Also acquired a BOSS DM-3 Analog Delay floor switch unit - used that as a general purpose delay for all kinds of ambient effects - and still own it today (great little unit) and use it with my guitar.
When I came back to the states I got an electrician to modify the power supply on the keyboard to handle US power. After a few years I gave it to my sister who was studying music in college at the time. No idea where it is or what it is doing now...(sigh)
This new Korg sounds interesting (combining both my love of computers and music in one device). I wonder if I will have to sell my firstborn to afford it? Has anyone priced these? Would it be better for me just to get a good midi capable soundcard and some computer software combined with a cheaper keyboard?
I can assure you if a computer has the ability to input, process, and output foo (be it in the form of graphics, printed paper, or a stream of 1s and 0s) - someone will use if for something useful.
I had an Amiga back in the day; this is when the shiny new IBM PC-XT was the big thing, and clones were just starting to come out. I was happily typing away in AmigaWord, or playing Artic Fox (an early EA game title), or running DOS applications on an IBM PC emulator, on a machine with a graphical interface that blew everthing out of the water.
This machine was 10 years ahead of its time. Files that I created on that machine still reside on my Linux workstation today.
A computer is a computer; what matters is how you can make it work for you, and if you are happy with the outcome.
The supreme court has already ruled in similar cases that the maker of a tool can't be held liable for misuse of the tool if that misuse is not the major use of the tool. Bittorrent, for example, can be shown to have primarily beneficial uses - so you can not ban the use of it, or attack the author for the actions of some bad apples.
This would be like suing the manufacturer of a baseball bat because someone used it to commit a murder. That doesn't follow, and the court system already has presidence along these lines that any lawyer worth his salt will bring forward in court.
They can pass the law, but it will be struck down in the courts once they try to enforce it.
I can see using XML constructs to imbed documentation inside of source code so you can later extract it to whatever format you want.
I can see using XML as a transport encoding mechanism for moving data from one location to another - and for translating that data from one data management system (say a relational database) to another incompatible system (say to an object database).
I can see using XML as the native format for all my writings (so that, again, I can translate to any other format I like now, or 200 years from now).
I can see using XML as a configuration language for applications - so I can create a standard shared language between all of my apps.
But for other tasks such as generating code or providing a macro layer to an application, I would just use the language I am already using to accomplish the same thing - and probably do it more elegantly/expressively for people trying to get something done fast - which is really what code generation/automation is about (and I must say that code generation should never replace well designed libraries of routines).
As for using it to port code to other languages --> this is bad, for several reasons, not the least of which is the optimized structure in one language can be a total dog in another; to effectively do this you will need to build some sort of super optimization library to restructure the output code for every possible language variation.
This is interesting from a laboratory perspective. As far as I am concerned it bombs from a practical perspective. Most of the XML I write is via a wysiwyg editor for all my first drafts - then I tweak as needed - simply because it is tedious to use. I can't imagine using it as my primary programming language.
I, for one, welcome our computerized music overlords...
Play which songs?
Any songs you like - as long as you are not transmitting it to the public and not charging money for the performance (transmission would be recordings, radio or internet transmission or the like).
Extract from the Copyright Law:
Exemptions:
(4) performance of a nondramatic literary or musical work otherwise than in a transmission to the public, without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and without payment of any fee or other compensation for the performance to any of its performers, promoters, or organizers, if--
(A) there is no direct or indirect admission charge
So you can play any songs you like, as long as not making money off the deal. You could basically stand on a street corner and perform any song you like.
You are under the misinformed impression that you have less rights than you really have.
Is it even possible to create an original melody anymore?
Who cares? Unless you intend on becoming a rock star for the RIAA - why should that prevent you from writing music? Additionally, given the sheer amount of classical and other music in the public domain, I am sure a smart lawyer can find prior art for just about every contemporary melody out there (has anyone tried that to defend against frivilous lawsuits, I wonder)? Music is just like any other endeavor, it builds upon the forms that came before - so you don't have much to worry about (unless you are unlucky - but that is like winning the lotto - and even if you do, you have some options to fight something frivilous).
If you want to impact the under 21 crowd - why not promote streaming audio of all-indie internet 'radio' stations, as one example? Get it visible in the eyes of the young people; believe me - if they have money to spend on CDs, MP3 players and ripping their music on their computer - they have a presence on the internet, and are able to be reached.
Mostly it starts with word of mouth - if you are a teen who wants to make a difference - SMS all your friend's cell phones with the URL to your favorite Indy station etc. (be creative)
The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Get stepping...
What are you complaining about? If you are under 21, you have all the time in the world to pickup a musical instrument. And why does money have to be attached to it? As I said, you can just jam with friends who share the same interest (I've done that when I was a young man - and enjoyed it more than listening to any album I have ever heard. I played trumpet for 10 years, and took piano lessons a long time ago; I do know how to read music - took some music composition in college, and played keyboards for a group I jammed with when I lived in England; have written and recorded my own music - and I was dirt poor at the time and any money I didn't spend on my car and food went into the music).
I'm 40 now and teaching myself (along with my 5 year old) to play the guitar. Not only am I getting enjoyment from it - my 5 year old will have a skill she can use to entertain herself and people around her for years to come - without putting a penny into the RIAA's bank account.
Music is a part of life - make it an active, rather than a passive event.
Intesat reported a few days ago that its IS-804 Satellite is lost in space.
Dr. Smith strikes again...
Its like the scene in Demolition Man (the movie) where all that the radio stations play is old advertising jingles...
Music has a whole host of attributes:
1. Tune/melody/rythum(sic)
2. Lyrics
3. Score/instrumentation (the instruments and harmonies selected to support the melody)
4. Skill (singing, musicianship)
Listen to the Beatles after they went into the studio with George Martin. Listen to Aerosmyth. These are masters of their art - and hence why their albums continue to sell today.
Most of today's top 'artists' (and I use that phrase loosely) on the POP chart have 1 or sometimes none of those attributes. (I realize there are a few exceptions - we are talking about the overall quality of music - that has dropped off in quantity since the 1980s).
Sadly, until most listeners can tell the difference between Filet Mignon, and Dog Food and spend their dollars accordingly, the music industry will continue to feed us crap.
Better yet - why not form an indy band and get some gigs (or just play in the garage for your own amusement). That is probably more enjoyable, and certainly costs less money over the long run.
My family went out to buy shoes last year. My youngest - 5 year old - daughter wanted 'Yu-gi-oh' sneakers (she liked to watch the show on TV and had the trading card game) and so that is what we got her.
The first time she wore them to school was also the last. Apparently the boys in class embarrassed her and told her girls couldn't wear shoes like that. The shoes have since languished in her closet, she no longer watches the show, and has abandoned the playing cards.
I have tried all sorts of things to get her to wear them to school - boys be damned. But the stigma was too much for her to take, and so the shoes sit unused, unloved and unwanted.
The message was clear - there are certain things that are okay for boys to do, but not okay for girls. By the time she is a woman, she will have had that message reinforced thousands of times in subtle and not-so-subtle ways - through interactions with others, messages in the media, and misinterpretation of 'scientific' studies.
Both my wife and my daughter can run rings around me in Math (of which I have no deep love or interest). My wife learned to love Math early on - her grandmother would get her to count to 1000 when she would visit as a young child. Later her father, who is a mathematician inspired her to learn and see math in everything around her. My oldest daughter is 17 and a scrapper (she would literally get into fights with boys who tried to enforce their world-view upon her - and never lost such battles). She is an A-B student who makes straight A's in Math (she is taking Pre-Calc this year). I hope my little one learns a thing or two from her mother and big sister.
Everyone is an individual with talents they are born with, but also a large opportunity to develop new talents whose limits are only circumscribed by their own determination to follow through. This is how Spud Webb at 5'7" can play in the NBA, and these women suceeded in a field dominated by men.
Actually demand for pilots is projected to outstrip the pool of qualified pilots by 2008.
Granted, most of the jobs will be in cargo transport, and regional carriers (the big boys are moving to larger aircraft, that are more automated - i.e. don't need a flight engineer - so jobs in these companies will be more difficult to get).
So, given that, pilots will still have a bit of an edge when it comes to negotiating salaries. Its not like you can stick any pilot into an airliner and expect him to operate it safely...
Until we all have flying cars pilots will have job security.
That's easy: CEO/CIO from company 'A' goes to the country club with CEO/CIO from company 'B' and a friend...
~FIN~