The shelter should have told you the cat had leukemia, and separated it from the other cats in the shelter. They should have also asked if you had other cats when you showed interest in this cat (feline leukemia is contagious).
Bottom line: Find a different shelter. This one is BAD.
Hmmm, all my phones have been Verizon (Bell Atlantic), too. I've never moved into a place that's been unoccupied for more than 7 days, though.
My wife had a medical emergency and our neighbour ended up calling 911 from her telephone.
Wow, I guess that's lucky that you live in an apartment, and your neighbor was home.
Verizon said phones without service are NOT 911 accessible. Can you believe it?
That is very strange. I've never encountered this before in MA. In fact, I remember that when you took the phone off the hook, James Earl Jones was the voice of the announcement. Very odd.
Verizon is a royal pain in the ass, though. When they came to install the wires for my phone, they managed somehow to hook them up wrong.
The funny part is that the AT&T guy who installed the cable TV fixed their mistakes.
I'm a little bitter too, because I used to work for GTE.
The way I learned (it was called something like "double division algorithm"), you place the intermidiate results on the left hand side of the row (where the website puts L#). I think that makes it a little easier to keep track of all the numbers.
I have seen this method too (can't remember where). You're right, it does make it easier to follow and less prone to errors.
I was looking for an exact algorithm (or at least one that will give an exact answer, if one exists, on the first try
Well, technically, you're still iterating, but I understand what you mean. This method is derived from the iterative methods.
Also, Newton's iteration (at least the derivation of it...I trust it's a special case of Newton's method for finding roots of a function?)
You're right, it is a special case! It's the simplification of Newton's Method for the function X^2 - A = 0. It's also called a Babylonian iteration, and works by averaging until you get the estimate to the precision you want. The more iterations you run through, the more accurate your approximation gets. For instance, the square root of two can be calculated accurately to 9 decimal places after four iterations. Each iteration usually doubles the number of decimal places, since Newton's method converges quickly.
requires calculus and I think it was about a year or two before I took it.
Newton's Method requires the derivative of a function, but Newton's Iteration doesn't require calculus, because it's already been simplified. Thus, if we start with a guess that sqrt(2) = 1:
And this square root algorithm is same for a square root operation.
Yes, it is a sweet algorithm that uses a method somewhat familiar to anyone who can do long division. You can probably see from the above, though, why it isn't taught specifically very often.
Wonder if the webmaster is German.
At least from looking around on the site, it sure looks like the Behrs are German. At least that's one of the language options, though there was also English and Finnish.
Don't tell me I'm wrong. I've lived in three towns in MA, and my phone line has always had these features. The only time I've ever not seen these features is in a newly constructed unit when the line was not physically connected to a utility pole.
Who's your service provider, and how long has the apartment been unoccupied?
I don't know where you live - but here in Houston, every phone line I've ever had disconnected has gone *dead*... as in no dialtone, and in some instances, no power on the line.
Massachusetts. Every "disconnected" phone I've ever encountered has had dialtone, a message telling what to dial in case emergency service is needed, and a message telling what to dial to start phone service.
This one seems the most similar to what I learned.
And in which decade were you in 8th grade?
The 80's. Specifically 1988, slightly after the backlash against New Math.
None of the younger math teachers even knew such an algorithm existed.
Now, I find that hard to believe. At the very least, every one of them should have been able to use Newton's iteration, which is taught in basic college math courses.
At least, with pencil and paper, it's as mistake-proof as long division.
Of course you can always keep analog POTS (plain old telephone service) around like floppies--just for emergencies--but it'll cost you and tie you down in a number of ways.
No it won't, the local provider is required to provide 911 service on disconnected lines.
When I registered to vote in MA for the 1996 election, they told me that because the election was less than 3 months away, I was not allowed to vote in the general election.
That seemed like a pretty lame excuse then, and it still does. Is there any truth to being a new voter and not being allowed to vote, or did I get disenfranchised?
Dilbert:...and people who don't bother to vote have no right to complain. Dogbert: Why not? Dilbert: Why not? It's obvious. No vote means no right to complain. You can't get much more logical than that. Besides, that's how I was raised. Dogbert: You were raised by bumper stickers?
When I run Windows at home I keep the 15" at 1024X768, but Mac OS X looks about the same at 1280X1024. XP just doesn't look pretty at really high resolution.
I just installed the same application on my computer and my girlfriend's. We both run XP, but she uses 1024x768 and I use 1600x1200. At the time, I remember thinking that the application looked a lot better on my machine, because the controls and the text were a lot crisper.
The funny part is that the application I was comparing was Apple iTunes. It looks *really* sweet on my machine, and I like it better than MusicMatch (which, for some reason, would produce a blank song once and a while).
No, another company that was successful would buy out the floundering company and its source code because of the promising potential.
Closed source gets forked all the time. In the real world it's called a business transaction as the source is sold to another company.
This happened to the company that I used to work for. We went out of business, the employees were laid off, and the IP was sold.
Guess where the source code, the hardware design, and the existing prototype is now?
It's in a closet at the company that bought it. It was bought simply to keep competitors from using it.
One would think though that on a story about custom buiding a Linux PVR system, you'd comment on, well, a custom-built Linux PVR system.
We all know TiVos are easy to use and based on Linux, but that's not the subject of this story or what the original poster was commenting on.
The original poster wasn't on topic either: "This article shows why linux is not mainstream yet". I disagreed with that assessment, and stayed more on topic by pointing out that one mainstream use of Linux is the TiVo.
The fact remains that if you want to achieve what the story is concerned with, and build a custom solution, you have to go through a lot of needlessly complex configuration that should really be automated in some fashion by now.
There actually are automated solutions (KnoppMyth, MiniMyth, Gentoo). However, the article chose not to use them for various reasons (they used Suse, for instance). They authors even say, "opting for a different distribution that supports the PVR card natively would have been a better idea". They also tried to match the hardware as closely as they could to the hardware used in the off the shelf Windows Media Center machine. In other words, they placed constraints upon themselves that made the installation a lot more difficult than it would have been if they did not have these constraints.
I dont think there's much point in putting such rapidly changing things such as video codecs into hardware, when you can economically buy a fast enough processor with high memory bandwidth, like an athlon64.
It's recommended to have about 1Ghz per encoder, so if you want to record two programs, and be able to watch something, you're going to need at least 3 Ghz. Even with this much power, though, there can still be glitches when viewing or recording due to load. However, with with two Hauppauges you can record two shows and watch something at the same time with the machine hardly ticking over.
It's not unheard of to have both a Happguage and a different TV tuner card in the box as well, for when you want to record straight to a format other than MPEG.
Also, many people choose to use a less powerful, but smaller, quieter, and cheap machine like a mini-ITX as a PVR. In this case, it's a requirement to use a Hauppauge if you want to watch and record at the same time.
Seems like you're only proving his point further here.
Well, I suppose so, if you count merciless ridicule as honest user testimony.
If you're so sure, then how about a real example of how average-user-friendly it is to setup, instead of taking the cop-out of basically saying "It's easy for me, how could it possibly be hard for anyone else?"
Fine. How to set up a TiVo:
Take you TiVo out of the box.
Oh and ah, then pet TiVo affectionately.
Put batteries in remote.
Connect cable wire to TiVo.
Set the channel switch on TiVo to "3".
Connect one end of red/white/yellow wire to TiVo and other end to TV.
Connect one end of phone cord to TiVo and other end to phone jack.
Plug in TiVo, turn it on, and turn on the TV.
Set the TV channel to "3".
Follow the on-screen instructions.
Record stuff.
Watch recorded stuff.
Drink beer. Eat chips.
See? Easy. No, recompile of the kernel was necessary.
The point was that the TiVo is a simple to use device that is based on Linux, and is widely used by the unwashed masses. The parent concluded that Linux isn't ready for the mainstream by citing parts of an article about custom building a machine from scratch, while ignoring the counterexample of consumer-oriented products already using Linux.
this sort of thing is far above the average Joe's understanding I'm afraid, and it really shouldn't be stuff they have to know as it's not user friendly, confusing and assumes far too much prior knowledge.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I had all these issues with my Linux-based TiVo. It's so hard for the average Joe like me to understand, and it's not user friendly at all. Apparently you need to have prior knowledge of things like "TV", "Cable", "Schedules", and "Shows."
Has anyone out there been in a class like this before?
Yes, about 10 years ago, WPI used to do this in their Software Engineering class. However, they stopped doing this a year after I took the course, due to time constraints (we have 7 week terms).
Basically, what we had to do was generate a requirements document for the other development team to follow, and then they would develop the software per our requirements. We had to do the same thing with another group's set of requirements.
The aim of this was not to teach about outsourcing so much as it was to teach about generating a good set of requirements and learning how to interpret what the customer wants. These are skills you use regardless of whether you are outsourcing or insourcing.
The FCC currently prohibits the use and operation of cellular telephones while airborne.
The FAA supports this airborne restriction because cell phones might interfere with critical aircraft systems. Currently, the FAA does not prohibit use of cellular telephones in aircraft while on the ground if the airline has determined that they won't interfere with the navigation or communication systems of the aircraft.
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The shelter should have told you the cat had leukemia, and separated it from the other cats in the shelter. They should have also asked if you had other cats when you showed interest in this cat (feline leukemia is contagious).
Bottom line: Find a different shelter. This one is BAD.
How long is it going to take to learn that?
Hmmm, all my phones have been Verizon (Bell Atlantic), too. I've never moved into a place that's been unoccupied for more than 7 days, though.
My wife had a medical emergency and our neighbour ended up calling 911 from her telephone.
Wow, I guess that's lucky that you live in an apartment, and your neighbor was home.
Verizon said phones without service are NOT 911 accessible. Can you believe it?
That is very strange. I've never encountered this before in MA. In fact, I remember that when you took the phone off the hook, James Earl Jones was the voice of the announcement. Very odd.
Verizon is a royal pain in the ass, though. When they came to install the wires for my phone, they managed somehow to hook them up wrong. The funny part is that the AT&T guy who installed the cable TV fixed their mistakes.
I'm a little bitter too, because I used to work for GTE.
I have seen this method too (can't remember where). You're right, it does make it easier to follow and less prone to errors.
I was looking for an exact algorithm (or at least one that will give an exact answer, if one exists, on the first try
Well, technically, you're still iterating, but I understand what you mean. This method is derived from the iterative methods.
Also, Newton's iteration (at least the derivation of it...I trust it's a special case of Newton's method for finding roots of a function?)
You're right, it is a special case! It's the simplification of Newton's Method for the function X^2 - A = 0. It's also called a Babylonian iteration, and works by averaging until you get the estimate to the precision you want. The more iterations you run through, the more accurate your approximation gets. For instance, the square root of two can be calculated accurately to 9 decimal places after four iterations. Each iteration usually doubles the number of decimal places, since Newton's method converges quickly.
requires calculus and I think it was about a year or two before I took it.
Newton's Method requires the derivative of a function, but Newton's Iteration doesn't require calculus, because it's already been simplified. Thus, if we start with a guess that sqrt(2) = 1:
x1 = 1/2 * (1 + (2/1)) = 3/2 = 1.5
x2 = 1/2 * (3/2 + (2/(3/2))) = 17/12 = 1.416666667
x3 = 1/2 * (17/12 + (2/(17/12))) = 577/408 = 1.4142
x4 = 1/2 * (577/408 + (2/(577/408))) = 665,857/470,832 = 1.414213562
And this square root algorithm is same for a square root operation.
Yes, it is a sweet algorithm that uses a method somewhat familiar to anyone who can do long division. You can probably see from the above, though, why it isn't taught specifically very often.
Wonder if the webmaster is German.
At least from looking around on the site, it sure looks like the Behrs are German. At least that's one of the language options, though there was also English and Finnish.
Don't tell me I'm wrong. I've lived in three towns in MA, and my phone line has always had these features. The only time I've ever not seen these features is in a newly constructed unit when the line was not physically connected to a utility pole.
Who's your service provider, and how long has the apartment been unoccupied?
Massachusetts. Every "disconnected" phone I've ever encountered has had dialtone, a message telling what to dial in case emergency service is needed, and a message telling what to dial to start phone service.
This one seems the most similar to what I learned.
And in which decade were you in 8th grade?
The 80's. Specifically 1988, slightly after the backlash against New Math.
None of the younger math teachers even knew such an algorithm existed.
Now, I find that hard to believe. At the very least, every one of them should have been able to use Newton's iteration, which is taught in basic college math courses.
At least, with pencil and paper, it's as mistake-proof as long division.
I don't consider long-division mistake proof.
Bullshit. I learned how to calculate square roots by hand in 8th grade. The process is prone to mistakes and time consuming.
No it won't, the local provider is required to provide 911 service on disconnected lines.
How the heck did you look up satellite in the dictionary and still manage to spell it wrong?
FIFTY BUCKS?!?
Now isn't that nice?
(Why, oh, why do I remember that Godforsaken commercial?)
In a follow-up article, he will claim that, "Python programmers write better essays than Java programmers".
That seemed like a pretty lame excuse then, and it still does. Is there any truth to being a new voter and not being allowed to vote, or did I get disenfranchised?
This reminds me of a very old Dilbert:
Dilbert: ...and people who don't bother to vote have no right to complain.
Dogbert: Why not?
Dilbert: Why not? It's obvious. No vote means no right to complain. You can't get much more logical than that. Besides, that's how I was raised.
Dogbert: You were raised by bumper stickers?
I just installed the same application on my computer and my girlfriend's. We both run XP, but she uses 1024x768 and I use 1600x1200. At the time, I remember thinking that the application looked a lot better on my machine, because the controls and the text were a lot crisper.
The funny part is that the application I was comparing was Apple iTunes. It looks *really* sweet on my machine, and I like it better than MusicMatch (which, for some reason, would produce a blank song once and a while).
This happened to the company that I used to work for. We went out of business, the employees were laid off, and the IP was sold.
Guess where the source code, the hardware design, and the existing prototype is now?
It's in a closet at the company that bought it. It was bought simply to keep competitors from using it.
The original poster wasn't on topic either: "This article shows why linux is not mainstream yet". I disagreed with that assessment, and stayed more on topic by pointing out that one mainstream use of Linux is the TiVo.
The fact remains that if you want to achieve what the story is concerned with, and build a custom solution, you have to go through a lot of needlessly complex configuration that should really be automated in some fashion by now.
There actually are automated solutions (KnoppMyth, MiniMyth, Gentoo). However, the article chose not to use them for various reasons (they used Suse, for instance). They authors even say, "opting for a different distribution that supports the PVR card natively would have been a better idea". They also tried to match the hardware as closely as they could to the hardware used in the off the shelf Windows Media Center machine. In other words, they placed constraints upon themselves that made the installation a lot more difficult than it would have been if they did not have these constraints.
It's recommended to have about 1Ghz per encoder, so if you want to record two programs, and be able to watch something, you're going to need at least 3 Ghz. Even with this much power, though, there can still be glitches when viewing or recording due to load. However, with with two Hauppauges you can record two shows and watch something at the same time with the machine hardly ticking over.
It's not unheard of to have both a Happguage and a different TV tuner card in the box as well, for when you want to record straight to a format other than MPEG.
Also, many people choose to use a less powerful, but smaller, quieter, and cheap machine like a mini-ITX as a PVR. In this case, it's a requirement to use a Hauppauge if you want to watch and record at the same time.
Well, I suppose so, if you count merciless ridicule as honest user testimony.
If you're so sure, then how about a real example of how average-user-friendly it is to setup, instead of taking the cop-out of basically saying "It's easy for me, how could it possibly be hard for anyone else?"
Fine. How to set up a TiVo:
- Take you TiVo out of the box.
- Oh and ah, then pet TiVo affectionately.
- Put batteries in remote.
- Connect cable wire to TiVo.
- Set the channel switch on TiVo to "3".
- Connect one end of red/white/yellow wire to TiVo and other end to TV.
- Connect one end of phone cord to TiVo and other end to phone jack.
- Plug in TiVo, turn it on, and turn on the TV.
- Set the TV channel to "3".
- Follow the on-screen instructions.
- Record stuff.
- Watch recorded stuff.
- Drink beer. Eat chips.
See? Easy. No, recompile of the kernel was necessary.The point was that the TiVo is a simple to use device that is based on Linux, and is widely used by the unwashed masses. The parent concluded that Linux isn't ready for the mainstream by citing parts of an article about custom building a machine from scratch, while ignoring the counterexample of consumer-oriented products already using Linux.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I had all these issues with my Linux-based TiVo. It's so hard for the average Joe like me to understand, and it's not user friendly at all. Apparently you need to have prior knowledge of things like "TV", "Cable", "Schedules", and "Shows."
Where does it end?
LOL. Thanks, now I finally have a quote for my sig.
Yes, about 10 years ago, WPI used to do this in their Software Engineering class. However, they stopped doing this a year after I took the course, due to time constraints (we have 7 week terms).
Basically, what we had to do was generate a requirements document for the other development team to follow, and then they would develop the software per our requirements. We had to do the same thing with another group's set of requirements.
The aim of this was not to teach about outsourcing so much as it was to teach about generating a good set of requirements and learning how to interpret what the customer wants. These are skills you use regardless of whether you are outsourcing or insourcing.
You're in the wrong class. This is actually one of the Management courses. The SE course is down the hall.
I just thought you'd like to know before you get too into it.
On second thought, if you couldn't figure out what room you're supposed to be in, you'd be a good manager. Nevermind.
From this FAA web page:
Sshhhh!! He said not to ask. Ooooohh, now you're in trouuuuuuble...