Hard to choose the greatest, but these are probably my top 10:
Dev Todo is a wonderful outliner and task manager.
Today I ported it to win32 using mingw to use at work (it pisses me off that windows dropped ANSI color support in their crappy CMD! I knew it was bad, but I still use it more than msys or cygwin because it is quicker on my slow box). Dev Todo stores everything in beautiful XML. I intend to make a filter for XSLT for my biweekly progress reports. My boss wants me to list things I've gotten done & what I plan to do & this great app can store all of that.
Pine-I don't care if RMS doesn't consider it free. It is the best IMAP client. I do like Mulberry as well, though.
GNU Screen-I mostly just detach/reattach. I'd like to learn to use it more.
LaTeX. I hesitated to include this, but I use it on both linux and windows & it is technically interactive. I have started using it more than standard word processors (WordPerfect>OpenOffice>MS Word) and I want to use it instead of impress/powerpoint/whatever.
OpenSSH because my box is so much better than the one I use at work
NcFTP best ftp client I found, though I have been having much less need to use it.
Standards are good, but there's little reason to be a standards-zealot. Google proved that perfectly useable and fast pages can bend the rules. IE should add support for useful standards, such as transparent PNGs, but there are many standards I care much less about--I'm not inclined to use them on my pages & I don't use IE for my browsing.
I maintain the master document; I just integrate whatever changes are desirable back into it. I think this is what one HAS to do. It is a pain--one of the nice things about TC is that you can choose to accept changes. If you're maintaining one master document & using multiple TC copies from other people, you might has well go with marking up the pages--nothing is automatic. Heck, if you're the one who has to integrate everything, why not use CVS or what not?
Yes, TC is a tool that can be used now. But it shouldn't be difficult for MS to implement a better system. You'd think you should be able to take that master document you maintain and automatically import suggested changes from a document that has TC and has been sent back to you.
Incidentally, if you DO maintain a master document, the TC isn't horrible for versioning. You can even store multiple older copies of the document in the same file. This, too, could be better, of course. But it is passable.
Progect is quite nice. One app that I do miss since replacing my Palm with a zaurus. They had been selling PDesk, but it looks like it GPLed now as well & they claim *nix versions are on the way. Definitely something to watch!
And then watch what happens to your document when you change page size and/or margins. For headers in my old school papers, I might have left, center, and right justified text. Yes, it is possible to fake this with tabs and/or text boxes and/or tables. None of these are as graceful to the built-in functionality in WordPerfect mentioned by grandparent post.
I suspect that formatting considerations such as this are also what allowed WordPerfect to have Make-It-Fit, which could change margins and/or font size and/or letter spacing and/or line spacing and/or.... to get your text to exactly fit on some predetermined number of pages. If Word tried to do this, ugly formatting work-arounds would suddenly stop working & would have to be redone.
I still wish thare was a latex class that could "Make-It-Fit."
Well, if you need to send documents around for review, Track Changes absolutely ROCKS.
Yes and no--it rocks for those who would be intimidated running cvs or diff or using any utility that isn't integrated in their authoring software. This is what makes me use word from time to time--my collaborators can't figure out the better ways to do things.
It is really poor for version control. It is also poor if you ant to submit to multiple people, all who should be able to make changes.
There are some great LaTeX IDEs out there that I have convinced peers to use. If they came integrated with better change control management, there really wouldn't be any reason for me to use a word processor.
Sorry--you can't bring your refernces for the FE. For the PE you can. In some states. And in some of those states you can bring anything while others let you bring only selections from standard references. The NCEES is so strange!
Actually, you can no longer bring in your own references. They have a single reference volume that they will sell you for you to get accustomed to before the exam. When you show up at the exam, you have to use one of their (used) copies, so you don't have any of your own notes. You leave this guide when you go home.
They should just make a punch out slide rule in this guide, and call it good!
There was a case in CA where someone was using the alpha to store test questions. A raid on his home PC showed questions from the past five years or something.
Tools don't make an engineer. But familiarity with a tool will help in a time-based test. Most students probably use the HP 48/49 or the Ti 8x or 9x series in their studies. It would be nice if they could continue to do so, though at least this is "almost" level. If you have only used an RPN calculator throughout your education, it would be an unhappy and frustrating experience to find you couldn't use an RPN calculator on the exam. This is an unlevel playing field. This is also why a "standard" calculator may not really level the playing field--there are going to be those who are just more accustomed to it.
Since the concern is mostly over stolen test questions, they should PROCTOR THEIR EXAMS. If they had the money, they could just buy a crapload of the most popular models & let people choose what they use (this would NEVER happen). It wouldn't matter that they had alpha--they would be left at the testing center anyway.
But I really think that they should either allow those tools they have allowed in the past or to make a statement as to how the test or passing criteria have changed because of the restrictions.
Not really--you still have alpha-entry, so you can still steal exam questions (which is their PRIMARY concern). And those that were cheating were using modded calculators. Think it might have had RF rather than IR, but don't quote me.
Yes. That is it. It is even harder to see on a real one, as the LCD casts some bad shadows. I guess most people just make the calc use a comma instead of a decimal.
The ARM on the new calcs are almost too much for a calculator.
On comp.sys.hp48, someone posted a clip of a porno film in grayscale. I guess if TI's have games for kids to play in their calc courses, HP has to have adult entertainment.
The screen does kind of suck on this (small decimal, annoying shadows), but it feels sturdier than a 32sii to me. I also think you should exchange your 49g+ if it is so bad--they've fixed a lot of the bugs.
I like the 33s. I would like it more if it had the matix and complex math that were on the 15c. We still have the 17c, so why can't they bring back that model?!
The keys are plastic. They learned the listen of the 49g. Even the 49g+ has plastic keys.
Keep in mind that this calc is useful on tests (including the FE/PE) that ban higher calculators & is useful to lend luddites who you don't want touching your higher power (more expensive)calculators. It is also smaller than the 48/49 series & faster than the 10 series.
Finally, if you want a souped-up 48, try the 49g+. No color, but USB & takes flash cards.
Good time to plug OpenRPN, a project to develop a series of open hardware RPN calculators. It just started, so don't expect learning TOO much from it (they still have some problems with their forums, so please be gentle with the server), but if you can help out please do so!
The NCEES just banned the HP48/49 from their popular engineering exams. People were using them to steal exam questions and/or to cheat by transmitting to one another. The HP33s is the ONLY RPN calculator that is explicitly approved. They are seriously considering switching to only allowing calculators that have been explicitly approved, but say they want to keep the list short (so may exclude the great vintage RPN calcs like the 15c).
There was a HUGE rush to get the 33s in time for the April exam a week or two ago & they were being sold on ebay for hundreds of dollars.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry for the sloppy link!
(google: web standards)
The irony being that google doesn't use standards-compliant markup. Check for yourself. I do believe in web standards, but MS isn't the only problem. The truth is their browser renders broken html better than some alternatives (though you can fix moz or opera to do this using e.g. user style sheets). Perhaps the pages wouldn't be broken if authors used something other than IE to double-check, I don't know.
Standards are good, but there's little reason to be a standards-zealot. Google proved that perfectly useable and fast pages can bend the rules. IE should add support for useful standards, such as transparent PNGs, but there are many standards I care much less about--I'm not inclined to use them on my pages & I don't use IE for my browsing.
I maintain the master document; I just integrate
whatever changes are desirable back into it.
I think this is what one HAS to do. It is a pain--one of the nice things about TC is that you can choose to accept changes. If you're maintaining one master document & using multiple TC copies from other people, you might has well go with marking up the pages--nothing is automatic. Heck, if you're the one who has to integrate everything, why not use CVS or what not?
Yes, TC is a tool that can be used now. But it shouldn't be difficult for MS to implement a better system. You'd think you should be able to take that master document you maintain and automatically import suggested changes from a document that has TC and has been sent back to you.
Incidentally, if you DO maintain a master document, the TC isn't horrible for versioning. You can even store multiple older copies of the document in the same file. This, too, could be better, of course. But it is passable.
Progect is quite nice. One app that I do miss since replacing my Palm with a zaurus. They had been selling PDesk, but it looks like it GPLed now as well & they claim *nix versions are on the way. Definitely something to watch!
And then watch what happens to your document when you change page size and/or margins. For headers in my old school papers, I might have left, center, and right justified text. Yes, it is possible to fake this with tabs and/or text boxes and/or tables. None of these are as graceful to the built-in functionality in WordPerfect mentioned by grandparent post.
I suspect that formatting considerations such as this are also what allowed WordPerfect to have Make-It-Fit, which could change margins and/or font size and/or letter spacing and/or line spacing and/or.... to get your text to exactly fit on some predetermined number of pages. If Word tried to do this, ugly formatting work-arounds would suddenly stop working & would have to be redone.
I still wish thare was a latex class that could "Make-It-Fit."
Well, if you need to send documents around for review, Track Changes absolutely ROCKS.
Yes and no--it rocks for those who would be intimidated running cvs or diff or using any utility that isn't integrated in their authoring software. This is what makes me use word from time to time--my collaborators can't figure out the better ways to do things.
It is really poor for version control. It is also poor if you ant to submit to multiple people, all who should be able to make changes.
There are some great LaTeX IDEs out there that I have convinced peers to use. If they came integrated with better change control management, there really wouldn't be any reason for me to use a word processor.
A good open source Applied Math text.
But now is the perfect time to look at it:
Suspended Domain
The domain goatse.cx has been suspended by the registry.
Sorry--you can't bring your refernces for the FE. For the PE you can. In some states. And in some of those states you can bring anything while others let you bring only selections from standard references. The NCEES is so strange!
Actually, you can no longer bring in your own references. They have a single reference volume that they will sell you for you to get accustomed to before the exam. When you show up at the exam, you have to use one of their (used) copies, so you don't have any of your own notes. You leave this guide when you go home.
They should just make a punch out slide rule in this guide, and call it good!
There was a case in CA where someone was using the alpha to store test questions. A raid on his home PC showed questions from the past five years or something.
Tools don't make an engineer. But familiarity with a tool will help in a time-based test. Most students probably use the HP 48/49 or the Ti 8x or 9x series in their studies. It would be nice if they could continue to do so, though at least this is "almost" level. If you have only used an RPN calculator throughout your education, it would be an unhappy and frustrating experience to find you couldn't use an RPN calculator on the exam. This is an unlevel playing field. This is also why a "standard" calculator may not really level the playing field--there are going to be those who are just more accustomed to it.
Since the concern is mostly over stolen test questions, they should PROCTOR THEIR EXAMS. If they had the money, they could just buy a crapload of the most popular models & let people choose what they use (this would NEVER happen). It wouldn't matter that they had alpha--they would be left at the testing center anyway.
But I really think that they should either allow those tools they have allowed in the past or to make a statement as to how the test or passing criteria have changed because of the restrictions.
Not really--you still have alpha-entry, so you can still steal exam questions (which is their PRIMARY concern). And those that were cheating were using modded calculators. Think it might have had RF rather than IR, but don't quote me.
Yes. That is it. It is even harder to see on a real one, as the LCD casts some bad shadows. I guess most people just make the calc use a comma instead of a decimal.
The ARM on the new calcs are almost too much for a calculator.
On comp.sys.hp48, someone posted a clip of a porno film in grayscale. I guess if TI's have games for kids to play in their calc courses, HP has to have adult entertainment.
The screen does kind of suck on this (small decimal, annoying shadows), but it feels sturdier than a 32sii to me. I also think you should exchange your 49g+ if it is so bad--they've fixed a lot of the bugs.
I like the 33s. I would like it more if it had the matix and complex math that were on the 15c. We still have the 17c, so why can't they bring back that model?!
These were outsourced to an ROC company (Kimpo).
The keys are plastic. They learned the listen of the 49g. Even the 49g+ has plastic keys.
Keep in mind that this calc is useful on tests (including the FE/PE) that ban higher calculators & is useful to lend luddites who you don't want touching your higher power (more expensive)calculators. It is also smaller than the 48/49 series & faster than the 10 series.
Finally, if you want a souped-up 48, try the 49g+. No color, but USB & takes flash cards.
Good time to plug OpenRPN, a project to develop a series of open hardware RPN calculators. It just started, so don't expect learning TOO much from it (they still have some problems with their forums, so please be gentle with the server), but if you can help out please do so!
So replace it with the HP 49 g+. The ARM chip would make for a very fast game of tetris!
The NCEES just banned the HP48/49 from their popular engineering exams. People were using them to steal exam questions and/or to cheat by transmitting to one another. The HP33s is the ONLY RPN calculator that is explicitly approved. They are seriously considering switching to only allowing calculators that have been explicitly approved, but say they want to keep the list short (so may exclude the great vintage RPN calcs like the 15c). There was a HUGE rush to get the 33s in time for the April exam a week or two ago & they were being sold on ebay for hundreds of dollars.
It is good that video game movies are a fairly recent innovation. Lest we end up watching pong for 90 minutes.
I think that movies make even worse video games, though:ET for the Atari anyone?
So either roll your own or buy one with a lifetime subscription. Or get a Tivo that has the free basic service.
Kismet also recently announce a new version: Kismet-2004-04-R1.