Fire safes are "fire-resistant," which is a very different thing than "fire-proof." Keeping your data safe for 10 minutes while the still-structurally-intact house burns around it is one thing; keeping it safe after having been buried in white-hot smoldering coals for an hour (because, for whatever reason, the firemen couldn't get there) is entirely another.
If I could have done something to protect my investment (I bought it to own, not rent) such as burn it to a CD or backup to another HD I would be fine. As it is, I'm completely screwed, thanks to the whim of some company that cares absolutely nothing about me.
On the bright side, at least you've learned your lesson never to buy anything with DRM again... right?
Oh yeah? Then what about ports to Playstations and Wiis? I'm not a console developer, but I'll bet those use OpenGL (and they certainly don't use DirectX)!
(and coding around their lack case-by-case, like we will still get to do with OpenGL)
Isn't the new OpenGL standard coming out right about now (at Siggraph)? Doesn't it roll a lot of the old extensions into the base standard, and thus end a lot of that kind of case-by-case junk too?
Oh, shut up! The amount of money required to fix the space program is equal to the amount we spend in a couple of hours (or, at worst, days) in Iraq, or on Social Security, or on paying interest on the national debt. If the politicians cared, they could damn well find the money!
Heh, the only thing I used the user-agent switcher for recently was to spoof a site into thinking I was running Firefox on XP because it refused to work with Vista (with Firefox or IE)!
Personally, I like it as long as I have a reasonably Mac-like theme (right now, using GrApple Eos). Sure, you still don't get Services integration and whatnot, but that's worth it (to me, at least) in return for extensions.
But, then again, if the car is a part-for-part copy, what's the difference in safety?
It's most likely the difference between strong, heavy-gage steel and flimsy lighter-gage steel. Either that, or the copied parts lack the more complicated reinforcement stampings and crumple zones and whatnot.
In fact, I recall a while back there was a bug and/or exploit found in the binary Nvidia driver for Linux. I remember the Slashdot article about it was tagged "haha..."
On the other hand, our first year Java lecturer insisted that K&R was the One and Only Correct Brace Placement Style and marked us down if we used ANSI C++ style brace placement instead of K&R. 'Tard.
Both you and he need to discover a little piece of software called indent.
The emphasis is mine, but the article talks in a couple places about touch screens and virtual keyboards.
I don't disagree that some Tablet PCs have passive digitizers that can be used with fingers in addition to styluses. However, the stylus input is more important. I'm typing this on a Tablet PC right now; believe me, it would be nearly useless (or rather, only as useful as a "normal" laptop) if it only had a touchscreen.
Incidentally, the software stack is also rather important -- unfortunately, it's much more useful in Windows than Linux because Linux doesn't have any real handwriting recognition (and especially no Tablet Input Panel). I'm in the planning stages of fixing that, by the way...
Anyway, tell you what: if you can find a single device marketed as a "tablet" of any sort that doesn't have a stylus, I'll admit defeat.
A "tablet" has always been a device for writing. Writing is always done with a writing utensil, such as a pen, pencil, or stylus. Therefore, if it is a tablet, it uses a stylus.
Clay tablets used styluses. Wax tablets used styluses. Graphics (e.g. Wacom) tablets use styluses. Tablet PCs use styluses. Historically, every single thing that's ever been called a "tablet" (except for pills, apparently) has used a stylus! Being able to write on the thing -- not just poke at characters on an on-screen keyboard -- is the defining feature!
Yes Object oriented code offers things that procedural does not, but again there's a cost and your developers better understand the language constructs.
Or, how about this: OO code is beneficial when you're trying to solve an inherently OO problem, but not all problems are OO. Some are procedural, some are functional, etc., and you're better off using the appropriate paradigm for the task.
Slashdot Mirror
No, sorry, that's just a restatement of option four.
Er, I'm talking about OpenGL, not DirectX. Not being version-number-inflated, OpenGL is on version 3 rather than 10b.
<Morbo>THE YANGTZE RIVER IS NOT A FJORD! GOODNIGHT!</Morbo>
(damn lameness filter!)
There is a fourth option: perhaps he doesn't care about the particular subject, but just likes to argue.
But what the fuck good is it, since they don't let you access the damn graphics accelerator?!
Well, I was under the impression that it's a breaking-backwards-compatibility rewrite, so it would only make sense...
Fire safes are "fire-resistant," which is a very different thing than "fire-proof." Keeping your data safe for 10 minutes while the still-structurally-intact house burns around it is one thing; keeping it safe after having been buried in white-hot smoldering coals for an hour (because, for whatever reason, the firemen couldn't get there) is entirely another.
On the bright side, at least you've learned your lesson never to buy anything with DRM again... right?
Oh yeah? Then what about ports to Playstations and Wiis? I'm not a console developer, but I'll bet those use OpenGL (and they certainly don't use DirectX)!
Uh, or you could use SDL and OpenAL.
Because Gabe Newell, founder of Valve, is ex-Microsoft and has always had a hard-on for Microsoft technology. Simple as that.
Isn't the new OpenGL standard coming out right about now (at Siggraph)? Doesn't it roll a lot of the old extensions into the base standard, and thus end a lot of that kind of case-by-case junk too?
Oh, shut up! The amount of money required to fix the space program is equal to the amount we spend in a couple of hours (or, at worst, days) in Iraq, or on Social Security, or on paying interest on the national debt. If the politicians cared, they could damn well find the money!
Heh, the only thing I used the user-agent switcher for recently was to spoof a site into thinking I was running Firefox on XP because it refused to work with Vista (with Firefox or IE)!
Personally, I like it as long as I have a reasonably Mac-like theme (right now, using GrApple Eos). Sure, you still don't get Services integration and whatnot, but that's worth it (to me, at least) in return for extensions.
And he's even more awesome because he GPLs his old code!
By "literally," do you mean they execute by beheading, or do they actually use a different method?
It's most likely the difference between strong, heavy-gage steel and flimsy lighter-gage steel. Either that, or the copied parts lack the more complicated reinforcement stampings and crumple zones and whatnot.
So what? My Motorola RAZR does the same thing!
In fact, I recall a while back there was a bug and/or exploit found in the binary Nvidia driver for Linux. I remember the Slashdot article about it was tagged "haha..."
Both you and he need to discover a little piece of software called indent.
I don't disagree that some Tablet PCs have passive digitizers that can be used with fingers in addition to styluses. However, the stylus input is more important. I'm typing this on a Tablet PC right now; believe me, it would be nearly useless (or rather, only as useful as a "normal" laptop) if it only had a touchscreen.
Incidentally, the software stack is also rather important -- unfortunately, it's much more useful in Windows than Linux because Linux doesn't have any real handwriting recognition (and especially no Tablet Input Panel). I'm in the planning stages of fixing that, by the way...
Anyway, tell you what: if you can find a single device marketed as a "tablet" of any sort that doesn't have a stylus, I'll admit defeat.
The Sumerians and Hittites and Greeks and Romans and whatnot did, that's who!
A "tablet" has always been a device for writing. Writing is always done with a writing utensil, such as a pen, pencil, or stylus. Therefore, if it is a tablet, it uses a stylus.
Clay tablets used styluses. Wax tablets used styluses. Graphics (e.g. Wacom) tablets use styluses. Tablet PCs use styluses. Historically, every single thing that's ever been called a "tablet" (except for pills, apparently) has used a stylus! Being able to write on the thing -- not just poke at characters on an on-screen keyboard -- is the defining feature!
Or, how about this: OO code is beneficial when you're trying to solve an inherently OO problem, but not all problems are OO. Some are procedural, some are functional, etc., and you're better off using the appropriate paradigm for the task.
Sure, you can figure out what the code is doing, but in order to know why the code is doing it you still need comments.