Thought this might be a good place to get some input on that. At my work there are a lot of apps written in VB that generate Excel spreadsheets. I'd love to know that I can replace that functionality with something else.
There are Perl modules that read and write Excel spreadsheets. It would take work, but that combination should be able to replace whatever you have in place now. At most, you should only have to write or find an import/export library once, and use it in every program you write from that point on.
I wonder if the SWX format will ever really take hold. No doubt it will need something like a very good StarOffice suite to bring it into its own. (And maybe a boost from Microsoft secure documents / forced upgrade)
I have wanted to bring my company onto the free/cheap opensource software bandwagon for some time now. And I have the authority to do it. But I always have to consider the issue - can non-techsmart people handle it? Will they be able to open the documents they receive and use them.
In many ways a really good Office suite will help linux/open source just as much as the benefits of the OS itself.
But a lot of the filesharers aren't in the US. See recent/. article about Canada. And there are other countries as well. The faster internet connections get, the more transparent international downloading gets. Downloads from Canada are incredibly fast. So there will always be plenty of sharers.
Hey, that's awesome. I am also a physicist, but I had never thought of this. I always thought of a cylindrical beam, but then their's not way to terminate it at the end. But several crossed beams would work.
I remember wanting a projector that could display in the air after I saw Star Wars.
I also wanted to make a light saber that would really turn on and off (not like those sissy plastic ones where the beam never really goes away.) At the time I really wanted one for halloween. Now I just want one because I do. I'm pretty sure the same technology could be used as long as you could produce A LOT of mist. Could somebody from ThinkGeek get on this?
Most instutions will cover your butt now if you get your ID stolen. So it isn't the money that costs you, its the work.
You have to apply for coverage, and show evidence that your ID was in deed stolen. That can take months or years! And a lot of effort goes into all that. One of the worst parts is trying to restore your credit rating. While the whole process really shouldn't cost very much money ( $1000) it costs a quarter of your life to repair all the damage.
Imagine running and jumping into the pool, strapping on your Lunar Lander floating headset, and getting all situated, just to find a telemarketer on the other end of the line!
I don't know what's worse, that you have to get out and dry off, or that the telemarketer has your TOTAL ATTENTION.
I almost peed my pants reading about manages giving instructions to take your balls in your hand. Then roll them gently while inspecting them to make sure they are clean and free of debris. I don't know what happened to all of them. But I bet I could find some with a quick internet search.
She says that in ten years, 20% of our clothes will incorporate some kind of electronic components.
Has anybody thought about the cost of washing this stuff. It already costs an arm and a leg to get stuff drycleaned. If I could afford these clothes, the washing bill would finish off my bank account.
You're misrepresenting what I said in order to disagree with it. There's a big IF at the beginning of the sentence. The post is contrasting actual and trumped up damage. I never said he caused a site to go down.
So before you go spouting off to RTFA, check to make sure you UTFP.
If someone hacks a site, and it goes down for a day. That business loses thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars, plus a hit to their reputation. That IS damage, and should be punished.
But I think they're being a little loose with the word damage here. Lost revenue cannot be revenue that you didn't get, that you never would have gotten.
For all of you who didn't pick this up, I'm talking about a FREE scanner. Like one from the back closet, or one that a business DONATES. Businesses do this all the time for tax write-offs. I hope this helps to end the stream of -well-if-every-school-starts-buying-these- comments.
Hooking up equipment you already have will save money.
This sounds funny, but it is not a joke. I just graduated from a University with a strong physics program, and whenever anyone needed funding, the first thing they did was gather everyone up to brainstorm on how thier project could be turned into a weapon or defense against a weapon. Because once they had made that link, there was a far better chance of receiving government funding.
Sometimes they would even think of potential weapons of the future that their research might defend against.
There was no real intention of ever developing weapons. And some of the technologies were outright rediculous when you try to connect them to the military. But that doesn't stop the money from coming in.
At least they gave one month of service... Still, that's not very long to "support" your products, even if they were a flop.
They must have stopped selling them because Everyone was pirating copies of Light in August, Huck Finn, and Robinson Carusoe. Poor BN couldn't make enough money:(
Re:"Keeping the computer on"
on
MRAM in 2004?
·
· Score: 1
"How many people keep their computer on 24 hours a day simply because they can't stand to sit around for four or five minutes waiting for it to boot up?"
I leave my cpu on 24/7. I generally reboot about once every month or two just to give the little sucker a minute long break. It has nothing to do with booting though. I just have it running processes for me while I'm gone, like rendering images or backing up data. I have the cover off and a box fan sitting next to it permenantly. It's cheaper than every other fan or cooler I've seen.
$uptime
2:57pm up 47 days
can't wait
on
MRAM in 2004?
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I can't wait till this technology can permanantly remember data. AND it gets cheap enough to replace the spinning hard drive. Speeding up the memory read/write times and reducing the memory bottleneck could effect your pc much more than upgrading from a 1.8 ghz to a 2.0 ghz processor.
I know this puts me in danger of being modded down.
But...
Privacy is not a basic human right. Not like freedom to not be murdered, beaten, or starved. There are a lot of human rights violations going on right now, but certain levels of tracking don't even show up on the human-rights-violations radar.
Sure, denial of privacy can reach extreme levels, to the point where it becomes a concern. But I think this report is a little knitpicky.
We all know older stuff is better. (Except computers) Stuff was built tougher then. People put time, effort, and sweat into what they did, and they where proud of it. Now things are made for efficiency and low cost. Those things are good. But the low coast plastic parts now-a-days will never hold up like the higher-cost-but-oh-so-sturdy metal parts of the past.
Case in point 1:
Geo metros get excellent gas milage. But when a Geo crashes into a 30 year old Dodge brute, which car do you want to be riding in?
Case in point 2:
My furnace is older than my grandfather. It works just fine. It is not small, sleek, stylish, or 99% efficient. But it has lasted over 60 years! (our house inspector's book of heaters didn't even go back that far!)
There's lots of great things about new products and technology. But there's no replacing good OLD industrial strength.
You are probably speaking of plain naked Tux. I've seen Tux wearing some scary looking metal himself, including cowboy hat and spurs, rocket launcher, and grenades. I've also seen a giant Tux (~1000 ft tall) I suppose it all depends on which versions of the penguins are having it out.
Slashdot Mirror
Thought this might be a good place to get some input on that. At my work there are a lot of apps written in VB that generate Excel spreadsheets. I'd love to know that I can replace that functionality with something else.
There are Perl modules that read and write Excel spreadsheets. It would take work, but that combination should be able to replace whatever you have in place now. At most, you should only have to write or find an import/export library once, and use it in every program you write from that point on.
I wonder if the SWX format will ever really take hold. No doubt it will need something like a very good StarOffice suite to bring it into its own. (And maybe a boost from Microsoft secure documents / forced upgrade)
I have wanted to bring my company onto the free/cheap opensource software bandwagon for some time now. And I have the authority to do it. But I always have to consider the issue - can non-techsmart people handle it? Will they be able to open the documents they receive and use them.
In many ways a really good Office suite will help linux/open source just as much as the benefits of the OS itself.
But a lot of the filesharers aren't in the US. See recent /. article about Canada. And there are other countries as well. The faster internet connections get, the more transparent international downloading gets. Downloads from Canada are incredibly fast. So there will always be plenty of sharers.
Hey, that's awesome. I am also a physicist, but I had never thought of this. I always thought of a cylindrical beam, but then their's not way to terminate it at the end. But several crossed beams would work.
Thanks for the idea!
I remember wanting a projector that could display in the air after I saw Star Wars.
I also wanted to make a light saber that would really turn on and off (not like those sissy plastic ones where the beam never really goes away.) At the time I really wanted one for halloween. Now I just want one because I do. I'm pretty sure the same technology could be used as long as you could produce A LOT of mist. Could somebody from ThinkGeek get on this?
Sorry, that's supposed to read LESS THAN $1000, and that should be the worst. $1000 is two or three nice computers afterall.
Most instutions will cover your butt now if you get your ID stolen. So it isn't the money that costs you, its the work.
You have to apply for coverage, and show evidence that your ID was in deed stolen. That can take months or years! And a lot of effort goes into all that. One of the worst parts is trying to restore your credit rating. While the whole process really shouldn't cost very much money ( $1000) it costs a quarter of your life to repair all the damage.
Imagine running and jumping into the pool, strapping on your Lunar Lander floating headset, and getting all situated, just to find a telemarketer on the other end of the line!
I don't know what's worse, that you have to get out and dry off, or that the telemarketer has your TOTAL ATTENTION.
Is it just me, or does anybody else feel creepy when they use a mouse other than THE ONE that you've been using for the last ten years?
I sort of feel like my hand is being violated.
In a way, I guess it's like cheating on your mouse. Maybe that's why it feels so dirty.
My favorite memory is all the mouse ball jokes.
I almost peed my pants reading about manages giving instructions to take your balls in your hand. Then roll them gently while inspecting them to make sure they are clean and free of debris. I don't know what happened to all of them. But I bet I could find some with a quick internet search.
Well, I'm off to google to relive my childhood...
I think Batman and his belt own the rights to this.
She says that in ten years, 20% of our clothes will incorporate some kind of electronic components.
Has anybody thought about the cost of washing this stuff. It already costs an arm and a leg to get stuff drycleaned. If I could afford these clothes, the washing bill would finish off my bank account.
You're misrepresenting what I said in order to disagree with it. There's a big IF at the beginning of the sentence. The post is contrasting actual and trumped up damage. I never said he caused a site to go down.
So before you go spouting off to RTFA, check to make sure you UTFP.
If someone hacks a site, and it goes down for a day. That business loses thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars, plus a hit to their reputation. That IS damage, and should be punished.
But I think they're being a little loose with the word damage here. Lost revenue cannot be revenue that you didn't get, that you never would have gotten.
ALRIGHT
For all of you who didn't pick this up, I'm talking about a FREE scanner. Like one from the back closet, or one that a business DONATES. Businesses do this all the time for tax write-offs. I hope this helps to end the stream of -well-if-every-school-starts-buying-these- comments.
Hooking up equipment you already have will save money.
This could be really good for schools. Find and old film scanner, or get one from a business. Then hook it up to a computer monitor.
It's dirt cheap, provided you know the right people. And an entire class can all look at once.
If schools would jump on stuff like this, there wouldn't be such a budget crisis and lack of money for everything else they want to do.
This sounds funny, but it is not a joke. I just graduated from a University with a strong physics program, and whenever anyone needed funding, the first thing they did was gather everyone up to brainstorm on how thier project could be turned into a weapon or defense against a weapon. Because once they had made that link, there was a far better chance of receiving government funding.
Sometimes they would even think of potential weapons of the future that their research might defend against.
There was no real intention of ever developing weapons. And some of the technologies were outright rediculous when you try to connect them to the military. But that doesn't stop the money from coming in.
E-books aren't popular because they are inconvenient. Have you ever tried reading in a bathtub or on your toilet seat with an e-book?
No kidding. After I carry the tower, the keyboard, and all the cords in to the bathroom, the LAST thing I want to do is go get the 50 lb. monitor!
Then when I'm done I have to lug it all to bed for some light reading, just to wake up 15 minutes early to reassemble the office.
EBooks suck.
At least they gave one month of service...
Still, that's not very long to "support" your products, even if they were a flop.
They must have stopped selling them because Everyone was pirating copies of Light in August, Huck Finn, and Robinson Carusoe. Poor BN couldn't make enough money
"How many people keep their computer on 24 hours a day simply because they can't stand to sit around for four or five minutes waiting for it to boot up?"
I leave my cpu on 24/7. I generally reboot about once every month or two just to give the little sucker a minute long break. It has nothing to do with booting though. I just have it running processes for me while I'm gone, like rendering images or backing up data. I have the cover off and a box fan sitting next to it permenantly. It's cheaper than every other fan or cooler I've seen.
$uptime 2:57pm up 47 days
I can't wait till this technology can permanantly remember data. AND it gets cheap enough to replace the spinning hard drive. Speeding up the memory read/write times and reducing the memory bottleneck could effect your pc much more than upgrading from a 1.8 ghz to a 2.0 ghz processor.
I know this puts me in danger of being modded down.
But...
Privacy is not a basic human right. Not like freedom to not be murdered, beaten, or starved. There are a lot of human rights violations going on right now, but certain levels of tracking don't even show up on the human-rights-violations radar.
Sure, denial of privacy can reach extreme levels, to the point where it becomes a concern. But I think this report is a little knitpicky.
We all know older stuff is better. (Except computers) Stuff was built tougher then. People put time, effort, and sweat into what they did, and they where proud of it. Now things are made for efficiency and low cost. Those things are good. But the low coast plastic parts now-a-days will never hold up like the higher-cost-but-oh-so-sturdy metal parts of the past.
Case in point 1:
Geo metros get excellent gas milage. But when a Geo crashes into a 30 year old Dodge brute, which car do you want to be riding in?
Case in point 2:
My furnace is older than my grandfather. It works just fine. It is not small, sleek, stylish, or 99% efficient. But it has lasted over 60 years! (our house inspector's book of heaters didn't even go back that far!)
There's lots of great things about new products and technology. But there's no replacing good OLD industrial strength.
You are probably speaking of plain naked Tux. I've seen Tux wearing some scary looking metal himself, including cowboy hat and spurs, rocket launcher, and grenades. I've also seen a giant Tux (~1000 ft tall) I suppose it all depends on which versions of the penguins are having it out.
Those things really multiply don't they?
First you find ONE in a computer relay. Then, almost sixty years later, they've multiplied so that there's one in every program I write.
Like cockroaches.
You just can't get rid of them. They're hard to find. And when you squash one, three more come from nowhere!