So, yeah, double commenting is almost as bad as replying to yourself, but I forgot to say that, despite my objections, it's fantastic that someone is putting something like this out. I look forward to reading it. The volume of well-written documentation is achingly low in the Linux user space, and almost nonexistent in the implementation engineering area.
Of course, material like this (implementation guidelines) is difficult to find no matter what you're doing. Tons (literally) of books on tips, tricks, hidden features, etc. of an inconceivable array of products, but very little that says "if you want to do this, here's how to go about creating a robust framework for doing so."
They could use a little readability editing. The first paragraph of the introduction is an example of too many uses (two) of the same phrase "At the same time..."
For several years now, many people involved with computing and the Internet have harbored hopes that Linux might become a viable end-user operating system choice for a broader segment of general purpose end users. At the same
time there has been growing frustration with the problems and limitations of the current dominant commercial desktop OS offerings from Microsoft. In turn this frustration has fueled a greater need in the market for alternative desktop operating system choices. At the same time, Linux-based desktop-oriented distributions have improved tremendously as a result of the inclusive and open-ended dynamics of the open source development movement.
Oh, and I'll probably get flamed for this, but in section 1.1 they talk about "migrating users from the Microsoft Office productivity suite to a Linux-based equivalent."
Say what you will about MS Office versus OpenOffice, but the latter is not an "equivalent" to the former. More like an "alternative."
So, if someone has never read the book (series?), is the miniseries worth watching? I'm a little sketchy about most "made for TV" sci-fi/fantasy miniseries, as the producers usually try to dumb things down so much that they're intolerable to watch for your average sci-fi/fantasy fan. I haven't necessarily seen that to be the case, though, with The SciFi Channel's miniseries, such as Dune or Farscape, which is sort of amazing considering how dumb a lot of their regular programming seems to be (Andromeda, for instance).
I wouldn't get too worked up about it until it happens. I had several college profs who started out the terms saying how they were strict about assignments getting turned in, and how you could fail if you didn't do this or that; I rarely found their bite to be as bad as their bark. Mostly they want to put the fear of them as a deity figure in you, then be gracious later. If they get overwhelmed, they've set a good baseline to fall back on.
So, if it were me, I think I'd go talk to the people that I outbid in the auction. If someone was willing to bid $25,000 for a virtual island (and be outbid), then maybe they'd be willing to Buy It Now (apologies to eBay) on a piece of the island; maybe a sweet piece of beachfront property where they can build that topless resort they always wanted...
Heh. If you've got some time on your hands, read Realtime by Daniel Keys Moran (link is to the actual short story, not a "buy this book" page). It may make you swear off imagining Beowulf clusters, though.
Does it strike you as odd that these people are putting millions of dollars into the most advanced visualization system currently known to man, and the best they can come up with is essentially a three-monitor spread? I realize that they are using a bunch of projectors to produce a complex image, but shouldn't we be reaching toward something more out of the ordinary, like our sci-fi writers have already visualized? When William Gibson wrote about virtual reality, Jaron Lanier and his contemporaries said, "That's a neat idea. We can do that." So, what's up here?
You wouldn't do the same job for $10 per hour. Oh, that might be the amount you pay yourself, but when you consider the overhead of paying for a bond, which you'll have to have to protect yourself, insurance, tools (which wear out and break when you do something for a living), a vehicle (can't do professional plumbing out of your Civic), advertising (ever look at the price of a Yellow Pages listing?), etc., you'll find that you have to charge a lot more than you thought. It might not be $100 an hour, but it'll get close.
Oh, and I forgot to mention: Most tradesmen only work a few hours a week (maybe 25) because there's just not enough work to go around. So figure out how much you want to make in a month, then divide it by the number of hours you're going to get, and it starts to look grim. Then start subtracting out costs... ouch.
Agreed. I understand the reasoning behind having a category of prizes for students, as the government wants to spark interest in technological excellence early on. On the other hand, I'm 37 years old and have a bachelor's degree, so I'm essentially "educated." But my degree is in Business Information Systems, not rocket science.
I'm a student of space, though, and tinker around with engineering things that could be useful in that arena. I sure would like the ability to compete for a prize worth fifty or a hundred grand for a design. Crap, for a hundred grand, I'd deliver a working prototype of something. There are a lot of people working at this level that would like an opportunity to double or triple their annual salary for a year by doing something they love anyhow. So, where's the category for us?
Precisely. Congress won't vote to dramatically increase NASA's ability to award prizes, because they lose control over the ability to grab pork for their constituencies. Even if prizes are restricted to Americans (likely, since they don't want to be awarding multi-million dollar prizes to foreign economies), the chances are essentially n/300 million, where n is the number of people in any particular Congressman's district, that a prize will be awarded where that Congressman wants it to be. Now, for a state like Texas, with about 8 percent of the nation's population, a one-in-twelve roll of the dice might be okay, but it probably still doesn't compete with their average take on contracts, which I (without any evidence) seem to think is higher.
Did you read the specs on the thing? Almost 500 pounds (200kg = approx 440#), and moves at about one mile per hour.
That's great if you can't otherwise walk at all, I suppose, but I don't see soldiers getting all jazzed about strolling into combat in one, guns or not.
Eh.. I liked the old one. First time I saw it, I stopped and pondered it for a good 38 seconds before continuing. Reading Slashdot, that's practically an eternity.
They're worried about the effect of hydrocarbons as fuel on the soil, yet they're thinking of using RTGs? I'm not against RTGs, this just seems like a little flawed logic.
Slashdot Mirror
So, yeah, double commenting is almost as bad as replying to yourself, but I forgot to say that, despite my objections, it's fantastic that someone is putting something like this out. I look forward to reading it. The volume of well-written documentation is achingly low in the Linux user space, and almost nonexistent in the implementation engineering area.
Of course, material like this (implementation guidelines) is difficult to find no matter what you're doing. Tons (literally) of books on tips, tricks, hidden features, etc. of an inconceivable array of products, but very little that says "if you want to do this, here's how to go about creating a robust framework for doing so."
For several years now, many people involved with computing and the Internet have harbored hopes that Linux might become a viable end-user operating system choice for a broader segment of general purpose end users. At the same time there has been growing frustration with the problems and limitations of the current dominant commercial desktop OS offerings from Microsoft. In turn this frustration has fueled a greater need in the market for alternative desktop operating system choices. At the same time, Linux-based desktop-oriented distributions have improved tremendously as a result of the inclusive and open-ended dynamics of the open source development movement.
Oh, and I'll probably get flamed for this, but in section 1.1 they talk about "migrating users from the Microsoft Office productivity suite to a Linux-based equivalent."
Say what you will about MS Office versus OpenOffice, but the latter is not an "equivalent" to the former. More like an "alternative."
"Pum Pa Chestnut Pies" is a bit creepy, but it's almost recognizable as music.
1. Spread catnip on organ keys
2. Add two cats and a recorder
3. ???
4. Profit!!
For that matter, everyone doing work on Solar Power Satellites would be interested to know that this sort of thing is impossible.
So, if someone has never read the book (series?), is the miniseries worth watching? I'm a little sketchy about most "made for TV" sci-fi/fantasy miniseries, as the producers usually try to dumb things down so much that they're intolerable to watch for your average sci-fi/fantasy fan. I haven't necessarily seen that to be the case, though, with The SciFi Channel's miniseries, such as Dune or Farscape, which is sort of amazing considering how dumb a lot of their regular programming seems to be (Andromeda, for instance).
Right. Forgot that part.
1) Make wildly overstated demands.
2) Watch 1/3 of students abandon class.
3) Hold class
4) Back off on demands and grade fairly.
(Sorry, this is academia. No profit involved.)
I wouldn't get too worked up about it until it happens. I had several college profs who started out the terms saying how they were strict about assignments getting turned in, and how you could fail if you didn't do this or that; I rarely found their bite to be as bad as their bark. Mostly they want to put the fear of them as a deity figure in you, then be gracious later. If they get overwhelmed, they've set a good baseline to fall back on.
Hmm... I'm putting too much thought into this.
I'll start to take this seriously when we see a headline that says, "Virtual Island Owner Cashes Out Virtual Holdings for a Real Dollar Profit."
Heh. If you've got some time on your hands, read Realtime by Daniel Keys Moran (link is to the actual short story, not a "buy this book" page). It may make you swear off imagining Beowulf clusters, though.
Does it strike you as odd that these people are putting millions of dollars into the most advanced visualization system currently known to man, and the best they can come up with is essentially a three-monitor spread? I realize that they are using a bunch of projectors to produce a complex image, but shouldn't we be reaching toward something more out of the ordinary, like our sci-fi writers have already visualized? When William Gibson wrote about virtual reality, Jaron Lanier and his contemporaries said, "That's a neat idea. We can do that." So, what's up here?
So just imagine the Beowulf clusters we'll be imagining at that point. It blows my contemporarily-themed mind.
Ah-ha! I always expected that Clippy was a Slashdot editor. Now we have more evidence! Sort of.
Production Notes/Status:
Status: Pre-production
Comments: Filming set to begin Summer 2005?
So, that's not where he is.
You wouldn't do the same job for $10 per hour. Oh, that might be the amount you pay yourself, but when you consider the overhead of paying for a bond, which you'll have to have to protect yourself, insurance, tools (which wear out and break when you do something for a living), a vehicle (can't do professional plumbing out of your Civic), advertising (ever look at the price of a Yellow Pages listing?), etc., you'll find that you have to charge a lot more than you thought. It might not be $100 an hour, but it'll get close.
Oh, and I forgot to mention: Most tradesmen only work a few hours a week (maybe 25) because there's just not enough work to go around. So figure out how much you want to make in a month, then divide it by the number of hours you're going to get, and it starts to look grim. Then start subtracting out costs... ouch.
Agreed. I understand the reasoning behind having a category of prizes for students, as the government wants to spark interest in technological excellence early on. On the other hand, I'm 37 years old and have a bachelor's degree, so I'm essentially "educated." But my degree is in Business Information Systems, not rocket science.
I'm a student of space, though, and tinker around with engineering things that could be useful in that arena. I sure would like the ability to compete for a prize worth fifty or a hundred grand for a design. Crap, for a hundred grand, I'd deliver a working prototype of something. There are a lot of people working at this level that would like an opportunity to double or triple their annual salary for a year by doing something they love anyhow. So, where's the category for us?
Precisely. Congress won't vote to dramatically increase NASA's ability to award prizes, because they lose control over the ability to grab pork for their constituencies. Even if prizes are restricted to Americans (likely, since they don't want to be awarding multi-million dollar prizes to foreign economies), the chances are essentially n/300 million, where n is the number of people in any particular Congressman's district, that a prize will be awarded where that Congressman wants it to be. Now, for a state like Texas, with about 8 percent of the nation's population, a one-in-twelve roll of the dice might be okay, but it probably still doesn't compete with their average take on contracts, which I (without any evidence) seem to think is higher.
Did you read the specs on the thing? Almost 500 pounds (200kg = approx 440#), and moves at about one mile per hour.
That's great if you can't otherwise walk at all, I suppose, but I don't see soldiers getting all jazzed about strolling into combat in one, guns or not.
It's starting to remind me of the spray-on "cobweb" videoconferencing from Ringworld.
I was thinking one of the Dune novels. I've heard of it too, and I've never read a Star Wars novel.
Eh.. I liked the old one. First time I saw it, I stopped and pondered it for a good 38 seconds before continuing. Reading Slashdot, that's practically an eternity.
Based on the description of Ann, trying to get into her pants was probably one of the more sane things he did. At least it was predictable.
They're worried about the effect of hydrocarbons as fuel on the soil, yet they're thinking of using RTGs? I'm not against RTGs, this just seems like a little flawed logic.
Letterman: "It's the Dick van Patten family."