The third striking thing where he he discovered "circular buffers" but calls them "Array index cycling." Are programmers really that clueless that they don't realize MOD N can be optimized with AND N-1 ??
Which came from: Network Model (Part 3 of 5) The array cycle with the famous binary mask trick I mentioned in Quake World Network (Some elegant things).
> So I wasn't talking about MSFT, who are suffering from a shitty CEO who has a serious case of the "me too!" copycat syndrome, but of RIM who never bothered to really try to expand beyond their core business user market and are now paying the price.
I would say that's a pretty fair assessment / summary.
They have a habit of buying tech companies no one wants.
Back in 1990 they had a *ultra* low power 128-bit (!!) CPU (Saturn) used in the HP48 SX / GX line of calculators and basically did nothing with the tech.
They are basically run around like a chicken with its head cut off. Hey guys we're don't know where we are going but we are making great progress getting there!
HP: Not Quite Dead Yet !
The "glory" days where HP Engineering meant quality were dead by the mid 1990's.
Money is the poorman's* energy exchange. (* or more accurately poor-tech)
If you had access to unlimited "Free Energy" (negating the problem of how to store it) and could convert it to matter in a form you wanted (applying E=MC^2) would money still have value?
Best comment in the thread... "You don't have NULL dollars in your bank account,... "/facepalm at devs who don't understand exactly why the user is asking why things changed...
> UI Rendering speed is exactly the same for native code and html elements.
That is not entirely true (but mostly correct.)
Native apps have access to DirectX / OpenGL and you can optimize UI rendering by caching textures and alignment. See this blog on EVE Online about how they changed the UI rendering / compositing back-end http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=916
So Microsoft wants to help _boost_ the popularity of Adobe's proprietary file format and Adobe didn't like that ??
Why is Apple able to get away with every application supporting "Print to PDF" then? Did Apple write their own implementation of license it? Why is MS not able to do the same?
So stooping down to his level sets the perfect example of how to be a better person, OK, I get it./sarcasm
Have heard the phrase "You catch more flies with honey then with vinegar" ?
If you want to let other people dictate how you respond, that is your choice, but your message would be viewed in a more positive light if you didn't act like an politician. i.e. Focus on the message not the messenger. Or is your point not strong enough to stand on its own without resorting to childish behavior?
If you moused over this, then it would show the N windows / tabs that you have open.
The taskbar itself would show you a _single_ icon for those applications that you don't want hogging / cluttering up the taskbar.
There is a time and a place where you want multiple instances of the same application to take on a single icon, and times when you want every instance to take up a new icon slot in the taskbar. Give the user _choice_.
@Golddess Sadly the grandparent doesn't understand "contextual grouping" (aka spatial sorting). It is an awesome productivity tip -- unfortunately Microsoft doesn't know shit about it so they effectively killed it with Win7. In XP you could drag taskbar icons dynamically left/right with the help of a third party app. i.e. Taskbar++. Like you, I haven't found a good workaround.:-( I want *some* applications to be grouped together, and others I do NOT want grouped together PLUS I want the ability to move both sets left / right where I want them.
@drkstr Here is another example: i.e. Let's say you have these icons in the task bar
1) command line
2) browser
3) command line A power use can use the fact that the left command line is in say the home directory, and the right command line is a working directory. It's an awesome way to visually organize your (sub/mutli) tasks. The unix guys did the same thing with workspaces, but that is overkill for the majority of tasks when you only need 2 or 3 command line / terminal windows open.
How many years did it take for explorer to have a column for directory, sorry, folder sizes?!?! Microsoft doesn't give a crap about advanced / power users and making things easier for _everyone_. I figure it will take MS another 20 years to figure it out.
>> "The problem is Theism and Atheism are both based on ignorance (a belief or lack of belief, not Truth nor facts.) Agnosticism is a step in the right direction -- wisdom _begins_ when you realize you know nothing. Only the mystic has Truth (due to experience.)" > "Agnostics" saying this more does not make it more true.
I am a mystic/gnostic, not an agnostic.
> Atheists ARE agnostics in the strict sense: A _lack_ of belief almost NEVER provides knowledge, aka Atheism.
Atheists have NO knowledge because ALL they have is lack of belief, no experience, nothing. Agnostics have knowledge because they _know_ that they have zero knowledge.
What part of the _definitions_ of 'gnosis' and conversely 'agnostic' do you not understand???
> God does not exist until god is proven to exist. She would beg to differ. Just because *you* are unable to find a _proof_ does not mean it doesn't exist.
My _experiences_ are my proof. i.e. The fact that I can SEE color is THE proof that color exists. If I couldn't see I would no NO proof BUT it would still exist FOR OTHERS.
> Further, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, so god is extremely unlikely until some sort of proof starts showing up. Prove that: - time exists - numbers exist
The problem is that you have no _experience_ of God because you don't understand the necessary prerequisite to: "KNOW THYSELF" thus you are caught in endless loop:
* I have no knowledge of God because I have no experience of God * I have no experience of God, thus I have no knowledge of God
> Unless you somehow move to another universe when you die (which is a pure cop out as an answer), If you don't like the answer, then why ask the question?
>how come we can't communicate with the dead? Some of us can. It is of little or no benefit.
What do you hope to learn that you can't learn on your own??
This has been my experience as well. You are 100% correct and succinct. While the text-string pragma-hack
"use strict" helps, it doesn't solve the root problem. Who knew that we'd come back 100% full circle back to Basic (lack of type safety) after all these years.:-)
If you think debugging JavaScript is fun, try debugging WebGL! gl.GetError is so broken it is not even funny. One the same hardware as a native C/C++ app you can get descriptive error messages. On WebGL you are lucky to get _anything_. Fortunately you only have to debug your WebGL base shader code once.
Slashdot Mirror
Completely agree!
Hey guys, I know, let's OVER ENGINEER _time_! WTF!?
Stop it already with these stupid bullshit hacks of leap seconds, daylight savings time, etc. They cause MORE problems then they SOLVE.
The third striking thing where he he discovered "circular buffers" but calls them "Array index cycling." Are programmers really that clueless that they don't realize MOD N can be optimized with AND N-1 ??
http://fabiensanglard.net/quakeSource/quakeSourceNetWork.php
arrayIndex = (oldArrayIndex+1) % 64 ;
arrayIndex = (oldArrayIndex+1) & UPDATE_MASK;
Which came from:
Network Model (Part 3 of 5)
The array cycle with the famous binary mask trick I mentioned in Quake World Network (Some elegant things).
You're right. Sorry meant 64-bit, not 128-bit. It's been a while since I've done assembly programming on it.
Still, an ultra-low power 64-bit back in 1990 !? It would run off 3 AAA (rechargeable) batteries for a month; much longer off normal AAA batteries.
> So I wasn't talking about MSFT, who are suffering from a shitty CEO who has a serious case of the "me too!" copycat syndrome, but of RIM who never bothered to really try to expand beyond their core business user market and are now paying the price.
I would say that's a pretty fair assessment / summary.
Thanks for the financial statement link! Much appreciated.
Forbes has an article date of "10.03.05" which I interpreted as 2010 instead of the correct 2005. :-/
Regardless, if you read the financial statements it looks like the EDD (Entertainment and Devices Division) wasn't profitable until around 2011.
> ... Unless they are willing to take huge losses (as with the Xbox) ...
In case anyone is curious ... that Xbox is one expensive little box!
Article is from 2 years ago ... (I believe the Games Division is showing a profit now...)
Microsoft's MidLife Crisis ... The Xbox game console is hot, but its division has lost $4 billion in four years and isn't yet in the black. ...
http://www.forbes.com/global/2005/1003/036A_4.html
HP jumped the shark long before Carly joined in 1999. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carly_Fiorina )
They have a habit of buying tech companies no one wants.
Back in 1990 they had a *ultra* low power 128-bit (!!) CPU (Saturn) used in the HP48 SX / GX line of calculators and basically did nothing with the tech.
They are basically run around like a chicken with its head cut off. Hey guys we're don't know where we are going but we are making great progress getting there!
HP: Not Quite Dead Yet !
The "glory" days where HP Engineering meant quality were dead by the mid 1990's.
Gold:
[x] not easily cloned
Money is the poorman's* energy exchange. (* or more accurately poor-tech)
If you had access to unlimited "Free Energy" (negating the problem of how to store it) and could convert it to matter in a form you wanted (applying E=MC^2) would money still have value?
Thanks for the interesting link!
Best comment in the thread... ... " /facepalm at devs who don't understand exactly why the user is asking why things changed ...
"You don't have NULL dollars in your bank account,
> UI Rendering speed is exactly the same for native code and html elements.
That is not entirely true (but mostly correct.)
Native apps have access to DirectX / OpenGL and you can optimize UI rendering by caching textures and alignment. See this blog on EVE Online about how they changed the UI rendering / compositing back-end
http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=916
So Microsoft wants to help _boost_ the popularity of Adobe's proprietary file format and Adobe didn't like that ??
Why is Apple able to get away with every application supporting "Print to PDF" then? Did Apple write their own implementation of license it? Why is MS not able to do the same?
So stooping down to his level sets the perfect example of how to be a better person, OK, I get it. /sarcasm
Have heard the phrase "You catch more flies with honey then with vinegar" ?
If you want to let other people dictate how you respond, that is your choice, but your message would be viewed in a more positive light if you didn't act like an politician. i.e. Focus on the message not the messenger. Or is your point not strong enough to stand on its own without resorting to childish behavior?
Food for thought.
Cheers
To clarify the example ...
2) browser
If you moused over this, then it would show the N windows / tabs that you have open.
The taskbar itself would show you a _single_ icon for those applications that you don't want hogging / cluttering up the taskbar.
There is a time and a place where you want multiple instances of the same application to take on a single icon, and times when you want every instance to take up a new icon slot in the taskbar. Give the user _choice_.
@Golddess Sadly the grandparent doesn't understand "contextual grouping" (aka spatial sorting). It is an awesome productivity tip -- unfortunately Microsoft doesn't know shit about it so they effectively killed it with Win7. In XP you could drag taskbar icons dynamically left/right with the help of a third party app. i.e. Taskbar++. Like you, I haven't found a good workaround. :-( I want *some* applications to be grouped together, and others I do NOT want grouped together PLUS I want the ability to move both sets left / right where I want them.
@drkstr Here is another example:
i.e. Let's say you have these icons in the task bar
1) command line
2) browser
3) command line
A power use can use the fact that the left command line is in say the home directory, and the right command line is a working directory.
It's an awesome way to visually organize your (sub/mutli) tasks. The unix guys did the same thing with workspaces, but that is overkill for the majority of tasks when you only need 2 or 3 command line / terminal windows open.
How many years did it take for explorer to have a column for directory, sorry, folder sizes?!?! Microsoft doesn't give a crap about advanced / power users and making things easier for _everyone_. I figure it will take MS another 20 years to figure it out.
What about _printing_ to PDF without requiring any downloads / 3rd party plugins?
What? You didn't get the memo? Win8 is so metrosexual :-) /me ducks
Oblg. Monty Python: "This is abuse, if you want an argument next door down the hall on the left." :)
Uh,
Xbox / Xbox 360 / Xbox 720
Zune
Kinnect
WinCE and early mobile phones
Win7 phones
MS Keyboard & Mouse
MS Store
Their big R&D lab.
> They may have no class to their software or devices,
That's one the major problems - they don't understand sexy marketing the way Apple does.
> and PS3 used something way off in left field because the OpenGL ES implementation that ships with the devkit isn't worth an expletive.
The majority of games used the GCM library, almost none use PSGL.
>> "The problem is Theism and Atheism are both based on ignorance (a belief or lack of belief, not Truth nor facts.) Agnosticism is a step in the right direction -- wisdom _begins_ when you realize you know nothing. Only the mystic has Truth (due to experience.)"
> "Agnostics" saying this more does not make it more true.
I am a mystic/gnostic, not an agnostic.
> Atheists ARE agnostics in the strict sense:
A _lack_ of belief almost NEVER provides knowledge, aka Atheism.
Atheists have NO knowledge because ALL they have is lack of belief, no experience, nothing.
Agnostics have knowledge because they _know_ that they have zero knowledge.
What part of the _definitions_ of 'gnosis' and conversely 'agnostic' do you not understand???
> God does not exist until god is proven to exist.
She would beg to differ.
Just because *you* are unable to find a _proof_ does not mean it doesn't exist.
My _experiences_ are my proof. i.e.
The fact that I can SEE color is THE proof that color exists.
If I couldn't see I would no NO proof BUT it would still exist FOR OTHERS.
> Further, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, so god is extremely unlikely until some sort of proof starts showing up.
Prove that:
- time exists
- numbers exist
The problem is that you have no _experience_ of God because you don't understand the necessary prerequisite to: "KNOW THYSELF" thus you are caught in endless loop:
* I have no knowledge of God because I have no experience of God
* I have no experience of God, thus I have no knowledge of God
> Unless you somehow move to another universe when you die (which is a pure cop out as an answer),
If you don't like the answer, then why ask the question?
>how come we can't communicate with the dead?
Some of us can. It is of little or no benefit.
What do you hope to learn that you can't learn on your own??
This has been my experience as well. You are 100% correct and succinct. While the text-string pragma-hack :-)
"use strict"
helps, it doesn't solve the root problem. Who knew that we'd come back 100% full circle back to Basic (lack of type safety) after all these years.
If you think debugging JavaScript is fun, try debugging WebGL! gl.GetError is so broken it is not even funny. One the same hardware as a native C/C++ app you can get descriptive error messages. On WebGL you are lucky to get _anything_. Fortunately you only have to debug your WebGL base shader code once.
Yes, I'm aware of:
http://www.khronos.org/webgl/wiki/Debugging
Now if only we could get a proper mouse-lock for web applets...
> . I don't come to Slashdot so I can talk about health care politics for fucking fuck's sake.
So complaining about it will make these articles go away??
I didn't realize you were _forced_ to read _one_ news entry.