I noted above that AdBlocker for Mozilla now has (in the dev branch) Java blocking. That's uber-cool -- for those of us that use Mozilla. I'll have to check it out, since I didn't know about it.
But for those of you that don't, or have applets popping up elsewhere (like AIM), I'm working on a java ad blocker that allows you to block specific classes from loading. So, if the JRE gets a request to load a class you don't want to load, it can be replaced with a null, or a junk applet, or any other class you like.
I'll put up my blocker (requires JDK 1.4 and the ability to set flags for your JDK -- anyone using the Windows Java Plugin should be fine) at http://tklancer.net/javablocker in the next few days. It's fairly basic right now -- just a class file, some preference files, and that's it. The process is pretty simple, though -- load a page, note that sucky annoying ad applet loaded, go through the log file I write to disk, and add the class name to the block file. Restart your JRE, and it should be blocked.
"For people currently learning to shoot, go with digital. It's a much better way to learn. My father (who used to teach at Nikon School) says he would have learned to shoot in 1/4 the time."
There are some disadvantages to this as well. I learned to shoot digital, and I think I'm not as disciplined as a result. Since each shot is essentially cost-free, you tend not to think as hard about whether or not you should try the shot, and whether it's even worth taking. Since it's instant, you don't have to think hard about what draws you to the shot, or the quality of the light, and all those other subtleties.
I'm not saying that digital doesn't have a lot of advantages (believe me, it does), but I've had to go back and make a concerted effort to think harder about what I'm doing. I think if I'd learned to shoot film first, that would be less of a problem.
What's with all the photography questions on/. lately, anyway? This is the first site I'd come to with a linux question, but not a photography question... photo.net is a much better place for this sort of thing -- even if this question does sound like a good way to start another digital vs. film flamewar (always amusing).
As for the question of whether Ansel would use digital -- I think he'd use it for some purposes in its present form, but digital doesn't match the tonality of his best work, and doing B&W (which is what he was best known for) is generally a clunky process in the digital realm. I think he'd have (at least) one for some of the flexibility it offers, but he'd still be doing his best work with a view camera with a wooden tripod...
...and the reassuring non-answers I got from the person I spoke to there didn't do much to calm my fears. I asked about a verifiable paper trail, security, etc. and he basically said "the election board has looked into it and everything's just fine, really it is." He wasn't sure who made the machines, just that they were part of a system called WinVote. He said the machines communicate wirelessly during the day -- when they're first booted they know who else is on the network, so they should be difficult to spoof. Cynic that I am, I doubted his answers, but he may not have known the full answers anyway.
The voting process itself was very easy. A voter board assistant put their smartcard into the machine -- after they'd verified that I was registered, of course. He took me through the process quickly -- the touchscreen showed my choices in groups (identical to this sample ballot (PDF)). I selected my choices on one screen, hit next, selected again. Once I had gone through the possible screens, it showed an overview with a blinking box for groups I didn't choose (I wasn't up on the choices for school board) and gave me an opportunity to go back. I hit next, and there's a big button labeled "VOTE". After I hit that there was (I think) a message saying my vote had been tallied.
The problems I noted, however:
- No verifiable paper trail for the voter
- No verifiable paper trail for potential recounts
- Wireless communication
- Little to no privacy (very small shields around the screen, and everything was turned to the wall)
- Smart card usage (how easy would that be to spoof?)
I have to wonder just what review was done of these machines, and how technical the level of review was. I think that any voter board choosing new machines, particularly for a county as populous and wealthy as Fairfax, should have access to a highly technical group to review and challenge the assertions of the supplier companies. I work in software, so I know better than to trust assertions of quality and security, but do the people selecting the machines have that skepticism? Or are they wowed by a easy to use machine?
Buy a DSLR now? That all depends...
on
Digital 35mm SLRs?
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
First off, some better sites to go to for photo-related stuff:
photo.net and dpreview.com.
Now: Should you buy a digital SLR? That depends, I think, on how much you will shoot and what you will shoot. The two biggest advantages of a DSLR over a film SLR are immediacy and cost. The disadvantages are a focal length multiplier (in the case of the Canon EOS-300D/10D) and a high initial cost.
As with all digicams, you can see your results instantly, allowing you to check the shot and retry it if needed (and possible). One note though: a DSLR is a true SLR (single-lens reflex) so unlike a regular digicam you can't shoot using the LCD -- you'll have to use the viewfinder just like the rest of us. It's better for framing a shot anyway, trust me.
The focal length multiplier (1.6x in the Canon case) comes in handy if you're shooting through a 200mm lens -- it becomes equivalent to a 320mm lens. It's a bitch if you want to shoot wide-angle, though, as a 28mm lens becomes a 45mm equivalent.
The initial cost of a DSLR is high -- you've got a much higher cost to buy the body, and you've got to buy a memory card. However, the more you shoot, the more cost-efficient it becomes. Excepting the cost of lenses, which is the same for both film and digital SLRs, the cost after buying is 0. Film development isn't cheap, particularly not if you shoot thousands of shots a year.
So, if you're seriously interested in photography, it's worth it. If you're just shooting the occasional vacation or family event, it's not worth it. My D30 and 10D (had to buy it after I broke the D30 on vacation, but I wanted it anyway:) have served me well over the last 2 1/2 years, and I haven't looked back.
One final caveat: many people upgrade their photography hardware and expect things to magically become better. Pros do not have access to magical make-photos-good-now equipment that us mere mortals lack (though perhaps there's a Photoshop filter I'm missing?). To take photos like Ansel Adams or Galen Rowell takes talent, practice, and loads of patience. Good equipment can help make the task easier, but there is no magic pill.
Um, so Time is owned by AOL-Time Warner, huh? And that means they'll never publish an article critical of the Hollings bill and Hollywood's attitude, like the article in Business 2.0? If you'd actually _read_ the article, you would've noticed that Business 2.0 is owned by AOL/TW...
All this paranoia about media and what they report has some validity, I think, but too often it's just a kneejerk shortcut to an unhelpful "us vs. them" attitude. I know I'm as guilty of this as anyone, but the simple fact is that it's not black and white. What we need to do to fight this issue is work to exploit the areas of the media more willing to provide an outlet for our views. So, for example, talk to Steven Levy (he still writes for Time or Newsweek or whatever, right?), or other writers who are concievably interested in the cause. They may not always present it in the way we'd like, but if it's a big enough story, they'll cover it. The trick is making sure it's a big enough story for their readers...
Once again, my M.O. actually benefits the record industry, but they don't know it or care. I have Wilco's album, and I have every intention of heading to Tower monday night and picking it up at midnight (it helps to have Tower half a mile from my apt).
I buy a lot of CDs, and with very few exceptions, I download some or all of them first. I'm not going to drop $15 on a CD I may or may not like. This practice has expanded my musical tastes extensively, an expansion in purchasing that probably would never have happened without mp3s. The music industry needs to learn not to abuse its customers, because we're fed up with it.
Their sales suck because nobody's buying Britney albums anymore, and they're in between trends. They have to learn to reinvent themselves! Actually, Wilco has some good advice for the music industry (from "War on War", off Yankee Hotel Foxtrot):
You're gonna lose You have to lose You have to learn how to die If you wanna be alive
I'm glad someone mentioned the media... I don't want to be one of those people that blames the media for everything, but most people do get their information (and viewpoints, frequently) from the popular media (anyone notice how anything scapegoated by the media after Columbine suddenly shot up in polls as a threat to "our" children?).
I'm 100% sure that if I were to go on a shooting rampage at the NRA tomorrow (I work down the street), the media would pick on the computer games over the books. If I were to name my gun Durandal, and leave out a copy of the Song of Roland on my bed, they'd pick on the copy of Marathon on my computer. If I left out copies of Norse myth with particularly violent passages highlighted, they'd focus on the copy of Unreal on my computer. It's simply about scapegoating at this point. Anytime anyone starts talking about "protecting children", you'd better duck.
Oh, and for the record, real violence makes me sick.
I could get the soundtrack, but the track I'm looking for isn't on it. The first thing I did after leaving the movie was walk over to Tower and look at the soundtrack. I also checked the website and it certainly wasn't in the samples they had. Unfortunately, the IMDB doesn't have full credits yet, and I can't find a full list of songs to Napster anywhere else...
BTW, was it just my imagination or did I notice Rush's Broon's Bane (off Exit Stage Left) in the credits? I don't recall hearing it in the movie...
Not only that, but you don't need to be a "record" geek to be like this. I live through music -- not only do I have music on nearly every waking moment (and while I sleep, usually -- last night it was Underworld's Beaucoup Fish), but my moods always have music associated with them. Music is quite literally the soundtrack to my life. Nearly every important moment of my life has music associated with it. And I own very few records (mostly Rush and Pink Floyd records that I also have on CD). In fact, my existence is so colored by music that I honestly don't understand how most people can live without music on constantly.
So I think Katz is way off-base when he says this type of person is wrong. I'm not nearly as hardcore (or obscure) as the characters in the movie, but I identified 100% with their attitudes and feelings about music. I also identified a lot with Cusack's feelings on women -- perhaps too much. I came out of the movie hyped up and feeling good. I think I'll buy this when it's out on DVD. I felt so good, in fact, that I went to Tower (right next door to the theater and down the street from my apartment) and picked up Apollo 440 - Gettin' High on Your Own Supply. Dammit, I need a cheap indie store near my apartment (good ones near Fair Lakes, Fairfax, VA, anyone?).
Anyway, that's my $21.12. I'm going back to my Freddy Jones Band CD (Waiting for the Night) now -- hey, it's on topic! They're from Chicago...
P.S. Does anyone know what the techno-y song Rob was playing at the club when they first showed him as a DJ was? I'd love to find it, but I can't figure out what (or who) it was.
How accurate (considering accuracy is pretty subjective here) are sites like this? I can't imagine going to one of these sites and giving it much weight at all
Disclaimer : My opinion may be a bit biased, because several of my friends operate teacherreviews.com along with the defendant in this case. I'm also marginally involved with the site. (ObPushyComment - it's not affiliated with any school, and it's got reviews for schools all over the world -- see if your school is there and see how your profs rate)
That being said, I give sites like this quite a lot of weight. I avoided the worst profs at UMD whenever possible thanks to a good site (now defunct). I also wasn't able to avoid some of the bad professors (scheduling) -- and believe me, the reviews tend to be accurate. Yes, some people have a chip on their shoulders -- but once you have 3 or 4 independent reviews, you generally have a decent base to form an opinion on. And the best professors, while sometimes controversial, get some extremely positive reviews.
I personally feel that the aforementioned site helped me get a better college experience -- I was able to focus in on the best teachers and get the most for my (parents) money.
The question is presented in a somewhat muddled manner, but if I understand correctly, it has to do with converting from XML to various formats. For the record, I don't think this is really an issue of converting from XML (which is relatively easy, given good DTDs and [for human eyes] XSL). The beauty of XML and XSL is that it's supposed to separate the *data* from the *presentation* of the data (unlike this mess we call HTML).
So then, if you intend to use XML to store the data, and XSL to format it, the only part of the equation left is determining which stylesheet applies to which requesting client. I have no experience with XSL (I use XML for machine data, not for human eyes) -- is it possible to determine in the document which stylesheet to use? If so, it's just a matter of writing all the stylesheets.
Of course, this all depends on everyone understanding XML and XSL. If people insist on using legacy clients (like non-XML compliant web-browsers *cough*Netscape*cough*), then is a need for "transcoders" to do the XML/XSL interpretation and spit out HTML (|| HDML || whatever) that works with that client.
P.S. If you want applications of XML, look in the b2b e-commerce world. I'll avoid the direct plug and not name the company I work for, but the whole industry is based on XML.
I wouldn't call Dogma at all suspect -- in fact it's probably the most pro-faith movie I've ever seen. It doesn't Christian-bash at all, IMO. I saw it as a very serious (and funny) exploration of faith and religious dogma. It comes down on the side of God, but not on the side of the Church. I'm an atheist, and I've gone through much of the same process -- though I came up with a different answer, I find Smith's exploration fascinating. In short, ignore the people who haven't seen the movie and are merely objecting to questioning Catholicism (like the Catholic League) and see it for yourself.
You know, I noticed that all throughout the movie. I don't think this one can be attributed to stupidity, though -- I think they were actually trying to be OS-independent. It's probably the most techie-friendly movie I've ever seen, and they switched OSes all the time. I wouldn't call it a goof as much as a good idea:)
Of course, I could just be talking out of my ass. It's been known to happen.
I find it less than surprising that less than 3 months after I moved to Fairfax, VA, the state (er, Commonwealth) declared themselves the Internet Capital...
I should try moving to West Virginia as a joke and see if it helps them at all:)
Side note : You know, I'd be much happier with this if I could get a.net or a.org
Not just that, but they should check out Working Class Whites. I came across it when doing some research for a class, and it changed my perceptions on the term "white trash". I used to use it, but now I cringe at it. some of the website is, IMO, scapegoating, but most of it is very justifiable complaining... The term (and others) have been used to denigrate the poor for too long, and I'm making a concerted effort to look on those words like I would any other racist term.
I work in the comp labs at UMD. Do you know HOW often I get a user who wants to take a file home but doesn't have a floppy, or a working floppy, or (ugh) the only free machine has no working floppy drive? I usually send them to FTP, but FTP is too complex for these people. And there's no conformity to it -- you can have a CLI FTP prog, or a GUI one -- and if it's a GUI, it can be like Fetch, or Internet Neighborhood, or FTP voyager... This is *free*, bigger than a floppy, and it allows them to get it from anywhere. Personally, I'd use FTP, but I know how.
My only real caveats are : 1 server, which means there's no real way to do redundancy How does it deal with resource forks? Can I just send a small app there without stuffing it first? If it fusks up resource forks, it's useless, because if they can't understand FTP, stuffing a file is probably also beyond them.
In any given week, there are 4 shows I'm guaranteed to watch : The Simpsons, X-Files, ST : DS9 [An excellent show, IMO. And nice to see that Vic Fontaine guy actually being given a purpose with Nog...], and Homicide. Of all those, I look forward to Homicide like nothing else.
Sadly, this season has been weak -- the departure of Frank and Mikey, and all this who-likes-who stuff has weakened it. The best ep, of course, was the 2-parter where Mikey came back. To see himself go to the brink of redemption and still pull back was possibly the most frustrating thing I've seen on TV in a long time. He's so obviously a good guy deep down, but he's got all these damn psychological roadblocks keeping him from doing the right thing.
As for not liking most cop shows, well, that's understandable. The rest of them suck. Formulaic crap -- here's a good measure : Do they always get their guy? Do the good guys always win? Are the characters complex and, above all, human? Homicide is unique in that the characters all have this depth to them, a sort of recognizable humanity that seems lacking in most TV shows... Not all their cases are solved -- look at all the names in red on the board! I mean, Adena Watkins' murderer is still loose, and that murder was ~5(?) years ago... Look at The Subway episode, the girlfriend has no idea at the end that her boyfriend just spent the last hour of his life in agony trapped between the train and the platform, she just jogs past all the police cars and ambulances...
Look at the whole Luther Mahoney shooting -- a cop shoots a glorified drug dealer down in cold blood -- how many shows have the guts to show the real problems that brings up? Sure, good guy shoots bad man, but is it that simple? Hell, I cheered when Mahoney bit it, but I sure as hell learned to regret it. Look at all the problems : Kellerman and Stivers and Lewis are all caught up in the lie of a murder by murder police... All the moral, ethical and legal consequences on what is an unjustified police shooting of a murderer... All the complexity and depth -- no other show reaches this level...
See what you did? You HAD to get me started, didn't you...
Slashdot Mirror
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Now, please refrain from slashdotting it until I've gone home for the day. I'm trying to listen to Fit the Third.
But for those of you that don't, or have applets popping up elsewhere (like AIM), I'm working on a java ad blocker that allows you to block specific classes from loading. So, if the JRE gets a request to load a class you don't want to load, it can be replaced with a null, or a junk applet, or any other class you like.
I'll put up my blocker (requires JDK 1.4 and the ability to set flags for your JDK -- anyone using the Windows Java Plugin should be fine) at http://tklancer.net/javablocker in the next few days. It's fairly basic right now -- just a class file, some preference files, and that's it. The process is pretty simple, though -- load a page, note that sucky annoying ad applet loaded, go through the log file I write to disk, and add the class name to the block file. Restart your JRE, and it should be blocked.
"For people currently learning to shoot, go with digital. It's a much better way to learn. My father (who used to teach at Nikon School) says he would have learned to shoot in 1/4 the time."
There are some disadvantages to this as well. I learned to shoot digital, and I think I'm not as disciplined as a result. Since each shot is essentially cost-free, you tend not to think as hard about whether or not you should try the shot, and whether it's even worth taking. Since it's instant, you don't have to think hard about what draws you to the shot, or the quality of the light, and all those other subtleties.
I'm not saying that digital doesn't have a lot of advantages (believe me, it does), but I've had to go back and make a concerted effort to think harder about what I'm doing. I think if I'd learned to shoot film first, that would be less of a problem.
What's with all the photography questions on /. lately, anyway? This is the first site I'd come to with a linux question, but not a photography question... photo.net is a much better place for this sort of thing -- even if this question does sound like a good way to start another digital vs. film flamewar (always amusing).
As for the question of whether Ansel would use digital -- I think he'd use it for some purposes in its present form, but digital doesn't match the tonality of his best work, and doing B&W (which is what he was best known for) is generally a clunky process in the digital realm. I think he'd have (at least) one for some of the flexibility it offers, but he'd still be doing his best work with a view camera with a wooden tripod...
The voting process itself was very easy. A voter board assistant put their smartcard into the machine -- after they'd verified that I was registered, of course. He took me through the process quickly -- the touchscreen showed my choices in groups (identical to this sample ballot (PDF)). I selected my choices on one screen, hit next, selected again. Once I had gone through the possible screens, it showed an overview with a blinking box for groups I didn't choose (I wasn't up on the choices for school board) and gave me an opportunity to go back. I hit next, and there's a big button labeled "VOTE". After I hit that there was (I think) a message saying my vote had been tallied.
The problems I noted, however:
- No verifiable paper trail for the voter
- No verifiable paper trail for potential recounts
- Wireless communication
- Little to no privacy (very small shields around the screen, and everything was turned to the wall)
- Smart card usage (how easy would that be to spoof?)
I have to wonder just what review was done of these machines, and how technical the level of review was. I think that any voter board choosing new machines, particularly for a county as populous and wealthy as Fairfax, should have access to a highly technical group to review and challenge the assertions of the supplier companies. I work in software, so I know better than to trust assertions of quality and security, but do the people selecting the machines have that skepticism? Or are they wowed by a easy to use machine?
Now: Should you buy a digital SLR? That depends, I think, on how much you will shoot and what you will shoot. The two biggest advantages of a DSLR over a film SLR are immediacy and cost. The disadvantages are a focal length multiplier (in the case of the Canon EOS-300D/10D) and a high initial cost.
As with all digicams, you can see your results instantly, allowing you to check the shot and retry it if needed (and possible). One note though: a DSLR is a true SLR (single-lens reflex) so unlike a regular digicam you can't shoot using the LCD -- you'll have to use the viewfinder just like the rest of us. It's better for framing a shot anyway, trust me.
The focal length multiplier (1.6x in the Canon case) comes in handy if you're shooting through a 200mm lens -- it becomes equivalent to a 320mm lens. It's a bitch if you want to shoot wide-angle, though, as a 28mm lens becomes a 45mm equivalent.
The initial cost of a DSLR is high -- you've got a much higher cost to buy the body, and you've got to buy a memory card. However, the more you shoot, the more cost-efficient it becomes. Excepting the cost of lenses, which is the same for both film and digital SLRs, the cost after buying is 0. Film development isn't cheap, particularly not if you shoot thousands of shots a year.
So, if you're seriously interested in photography, it's worth it. If you're just shooting the occasional vacation or family event, it's not worth it. My D30 and 10D (had to buy it after I broke the D30 on vacation, but I wanted it anyway :) have served me well over the last 2 1/2 years, and I haven't looked back.
One final caveat: many people upgrade their photography hardware and expect things to magically become better. Pros do not have access to magical make-photos-good-now equipment that us mere mortals lack (though perhaps there's a Photoshop filter I'm missing?). To take photos like Ansel Adams or Galen Rowell takes talent, practice, and loads of patience. Good equipment can help make the task easier, but there is no magic pill.
Um, so Time is owned by AOL-Time Warner, huh? And that means they'll never publish an article critical of the Hollings bill and Hollywood's attitude, like the article in Business 2.0? If you'd actually _read_ the article, you would've noticed that Business 2.0 is owned by AOL/TW...
All this paranoia about media and what they report has some validity, I think, but too often it's just a kneejerk shortcut to an unhelpful "us vs. them" attitude. I know I'm as guilty of this as anyone, but the simple fact is that it's not black and white. What we need to do to fight this issue is work to exploit the areas of the media more willing to provide an outlet for our views. So, for example, talk to Steven Levy (he still writes for Time or Newsweek or whatever, right?), or other writers who are concievably interested in the cause. They may not always present it in the way we'd like, but if it's a big enough story, they'll cover it. The trick is making sure it's a big enough story for their readers...
Once again, my M.O. actually benefits the record industry, but they don't know it or care. I have Wilco's album, and I have every intention of heading to Tower monday night and picking it up at midnight (it helps to have Tower half a mile from my apt).
I buy a lot of CDs, and with very few exceptions, I download some or all of them first. I'm not going to drop $15 on a CD I may or may not like. This practice has expanded my musical tastes extensively, an expansion in purchasing that probably would never have happened without mp3s. The music industry needs to learn not to abuse its customers, because we're fed up with it.
Their sales suck because nobody's buying Britney albums anymore, and they're in between trends. They have to learn to reinvent themselves! Actually, Wilco has some good advice for the music industry (from "War on War", off Yankee Hotel Foxtrot):
You're gonna lose
You have to lose
You have to learn how to die
If you wanna be alive
I'm glad someone mentioned the media... I don't want to be one of those people that blames the media for everything, but most people do get their information (and viewpoints, frequently) from the popular media (anyone notice how anything scapegoated by the media after Columbine suddenly shot up in polls as a threat to "our" children?).
I'm 100% sure that if I were to go on a shooting rampage at the NRA tomorrow (I work down the street), the media would pick on the computer games over the books. If I were to name my gun Durandal, and leave out a copy of the Song of Roland on my bed, they'd pick on the copy of Marathon on my computer. If I left out copies of Norse myth with particularly violent passages highlighted, they'd focus on the copy of Unreal on my computer. It's simply about scapegoating at this point. Anytime anyone starts talking about "protecting children", you'd better duck.
Oh, and for the record, real violence makes me sick.
I could get the soundtrack, but the track I'm looking for isn't on it. The first thing I did after leaving the movie was walk over to Tower and look at the soundtrack. I also checked the website and it certainly wasn't in the samples they had. Unfortunately, the IMDB doesn't have full credits yet, and I can't find a full list of songs to Napster anywhere else...
BTW, was it just my imagination or did I notice Rush's Broon's Bane (off Exit Stage Left) in the credits? I don't recall hearing it in the movie...
Not only that, but you don't need to be a "record" geek to be like this. I live through music -- not only do I have music on nearly every waking moment (and while I sleep, usually -- last night it was Underworld's Beaucoup Fish), but my moods always have music associated with them. Music is quite literally the soundtrack to my life. Nearly every important moment of my life has music associated with it. And I own very few records (mostly Rush and Pink Floyd records that I also have on CD). In fact, my existence is so colored by music that I honestly don't understand how most people can live without music on constantly.
So I think Katz is way off-base when he says this type of person is wrong. I'm not nearly as hardcore (or obscure) as the characters in the movie, but I identified 100% with their attitudes and feelings about music. I also identified a lot with Cusack's feelings on women -- perhaps too much. I came out of the movie hyped up and feeling good. I think I'll buy this when it's out on DVD. I felt so good, in fact, that I went to Tower (right next door to the theater and down the street from my apartment) and picked up Apollo 440 - Gettin' High on Your Own Supply. Dammit, I need a cheap indie store near my apartment (good ones near Fair Lakes, Fairfax, VA, anyone?).
Anyway, that's my $21.12. I'm going back to my Freddy Jones Band CD (Waiting for the Night) now -- hey, it's on topic! They're from Chicago...
P.S. Does anyone know what the techno-y song Rob was playing at the club when they first showed him as a DJ was? I'd love to find it, but I can't figure out what (or who) it was.
Not to mention all those compilation tapes I made in the 50's... Ahh, those were the days.
Which reminds me -- did anyone who saw this movie think the RIAA would object? People are taping albums for each other every five minutes...
Disclaimer : My opinion may be a bit biased, because several of my friends operate teacherreviews.com along with the defendant in this case. I'm also marginally involved with the site. (ObPushyComment - it's not affiliated with any school, and it's got reviews for schools all over the world -- see if your school is there and see how your profs rate)
That being said, I give sites like this quite a lot of weight. I avoided the worst profs at UMD whenever possible thanks to a good site (now defunct). I also wasn't able to avoid some of the bad professors (scheduling) -- and believe me, the reviews tend to be accurate. Yes, some people have a chip on their shoulders -- but once you have 3 or 4 independent reviews, you generally have a decent base to form an opinion on. And the best professors, while sometimes controversial, get some extremely positive reviews.
I personally feel that the aforementioned site helped me get a better college experience -- I was able to focus in on the best teachers and get the most for my (parents) money.
This is kind of offtopic, but...
:)
Get those dual sawed-off shotguns and find a Pfhor, or a Trooper... And you've got to love the single-handed Arnie reload action
And, for the record, the Marathon series has the best plot of any series (or single game) I've ever played. And Marathon 1 was the best...
I wonder if someone would be willing to put music into M2... One of the things I miss from M1 was the music...
The question is presented in a somewhat muddled manner, but if I understand correctly, it has to do with converting from XML to various formats. For the record, I don't think this is really an issue of converting from XML (which is relatively easy, given good DTDs and [for human eyes] XSL). The beauty of XML and XSL is that it's supposed to separate the *data* from the *presentation* of the data (unlike this mess we call HTML).
So then, if you intend to use XML to store the data, and XSL to format it, the only part of the equation left is determining which stylesheet applies to which requesting client. I have no experience with XSL (I use XML for machine data, not for human eyes) -- is it possible to determine in the document which stylesheet to use? If so, it's just a matter of writing all the stylesheets.
Of course, this all depends on everyone understanding XML and XSL. If people insist on using legacy clients (like non-XML compliant web-browsers *cough*Netscape*cough*), then is a need for "transcoders" to do the XML/XSL interpretation and spit out HTML (|| HDML || whatever) that works with that client.
P.S. If you want applications of XML, look in the b2b e-commerce world. I'll avoid the direct plug and not name the company I work for, but the whole industry is based on XML.
I wouldn't call Dogma at all suspect -- in fact it's probably the most pro-faith movie I've ever seen. It doesn't Christian-bash at all, IMO. I saw it as a very serious (and funny) exploration of faith and religious dogma. It comes down on the side of God, but not on the side of the Church. I'm an atheist, and I've gone through much of the same process -- though I came up with a different answer, I find Smith's exploration fascinating. In short, ignore the people who haven't seen the movie and are merely objecting to questioning Catholicism (like the Catholic League) and see it for yourself.
Well, all the better, right? Now all you have to do is obfuscate the helpdesk phone number... :)
-Tom (who doesn't do support anymore)
You know, I noticed that all throughout the movie. I don't think this one can be attributed to stupidity, though -- I think they were actually trying to be OS-independent. It's probably the most techie-friendly movie I've ever seen, and they switched OSes all the time. I wouldn't call it a goof as much as a good idea :)
Of course, I could just be talking out of my ass. It's been known to happen.
I find it less than surprising that less than 3 months after I moved to Fairfax, VA, the state (er, Commonwealth) declared themselves the Internet Capital...
:)
.net or a .org
I should try moving to West Virginia as a joke and see if it helps them at all
Side note : You know, I'd be much happier with this if I could get a
Not just that, but they should check out Working Class Whites. I came across it when doing some research for a class, and it changed my perceptions on the term "white trash". I used to use it, but now I cringe at it. some of the website is, IMO, scapegoating, but most of it is very justifiable complaining... The term (and others) have been used to denigrate the poor for too long, and I'm making a concerted effort to look on those words like I would any other racist term.
(Still looking for a job...)
I work in the comp labs at UMD. Do you know HOW often I get a user who wants to take a file home but doesn't have a floppy, or a working floppy, or (ugh) the only free machine has no working floppy drive? I usually send them to FTP, but FTP is too complex for these people. And there's no conformity to it -- you can have a CLI FTP prog, or a GUI one -- and if it's a GUI, it can be like Fetch, or Internet Neighborhood, or FTP voyager... This is *free*, bigger than a floppy, and it allows them to get it from anywhere. Personally, I'd use FTP, but I know how.
My only real caveats are :
1 server, which means there's no real way to do redundancy
How does it deal with resource forks? Can I just send a small app there without stuffing it first? If it fusks up resource forks, it's useless, because if they can't understand FTP, stuffing a file is probably also beyond them.
How could anyone forget Homicide?
In any given week, there are 4 shows I'm guaranteed to watch : The Simpsons, X-Files, ST : DS9 [An excellent show, IMO. And nice to see that Vic Fontaine guy actually being given a purpose with Nog...], and Homicide. Of all those, I look forward to Homicide like nothing else.
Sadly, this season has been weak -- the departure of Frank and Mikey, and all this who-likes-who stuff has weakened it. The best ep, of course, was the 2-parter where Mikey came back. To see himself go to the brink of redemption and still pull back was possibly the most frustrating thing I've seen on TV in a long time. He's so obviously a good guy deep down, but he's got all these damn psychological roadblocks keeping him from doing the right thing.
As for not liking most cop shows, well, that's understandable. The rest of them suck. Formulaic crap -- here's a good measure : Do they always get their guy? Do the good guys always win? Are the characters complex and, above all, human? Homicide is unique in that the characters all have this depth to them, a sort of recognizable humanity that seems lacking in most TV shows... Not all their cases are solved -- look at all the names in red on the board! I mean, Adena Watkins' murderer is still loose, and that murder was ~5(?) years ago... Look at The Subway episode, the girlfriend has no idea at the end that her boyfriend just spent the last hour of his life in agony trapped between the train and the platform, she just jogs past all the police cars and ambulances...
Look at the whole Luther Mahoney shooting -- a cop shoots a glorified drug dealer down in cold blood -- how many shows have the guts to show the real problems that brings up? Sure, good guy shoots bad man, but is it that simple? Hell, I cheered when Mahoney bit it, but I sure as hell learned to regret it. Look at all the problems : Kellerman and Stivers and Lewis are all caught up in the lie of a murder by murder police... All the moral, ethical and legal consequences on what is an unjustified police shooting of a murderer... All the complexity and depth -- no other show reaches this level...
See what you did? You HAD to get me started, didn't you...