As the former Language Architect for ColdFusion, Sim was closely involved in migrating CF from C++ to J2EE. Doesn't sound very anti-Java to me! He's one of the smartest programmers I've met.
What's up with the Quicktime tax for OSX users? Amazingly, you can spend up to $2999 on a shiny new dual processor G5 and Apple then asks you to cough up another $29.95 to "upgrade" QuickTime. Pathetic.
...that this was written up on Tom's *Software* ? The hardware side's pretty interesting, but the software's where this baby's gonna be won and lost. It'd be good to see a high level overview of the algorithms involved.
IIRC pure sodium is generally extracted from molten salt by electrolysis. So that means not only do you have to expend a huge amount of energy to get your sodium, you're also producing toxic, ozone destroying chlorine gas as a byproduct. Oh well, at least they can say it's GREEN!
is seemless handoff from the home network to the mobile network. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think previous 'hybrid' phones could only connect to one network at a time and you had to make a new call when you switched from ip to cellular networks.
The third network option I'd like to see is peer to peer calling. If you're within range of the other party the two handsets should be able to connect directly. Again, that's possible now with mobile/walkie-talkie hybrids (think Motorola has these) but again there's no handoff when you walk in and out of range.
Apart from obvious savings, P2P calling could introduce some great options like proximity alerts and indication of signal direction when your contacts are nearby. It'd by great for finding friends in a crowd.
Keystroke logging can't monitor the uploading of files over HTTPS though. Sure, they could remotely connect to your machine and virtually look over your shoulder the whole time, but it's impossible to effectively monitor a whole workforce that way.
As with most draconian Big Brother initiatives this one won't work. What's to stop employees from just logging into a private webmail account over HTTPS and sending information out that way? Unless employers block browser access, search people for USB keys, iPods, floppies etc there's a dozen ways information can be leaked out of a building.
This is actually the second Eclipse initiative related to Macromedia products. It's just the first one to be officially developed by the company. For a while now, ColdFusion developers have been able to use the open source CFEclipse plugin for development on Eclipse.
From what I understand about Zorn, it will allow you to create Flash applications via the Flex framework in Eclipse. Flex is essentially an XML syntax for building Flash applications. It's much more geared to the developer market than the designer oriented Flash IDE. So IMHO, this is a great fit, and good news for Linux developers. Now we just need a 64 bit Flash player for Linux...
Just wondering, could one or more of the supplementary cores be used for translating x86 instructions to RISC (and back) for the Cells main processor? I'm not really familiar with the Cell's architecture but it'd be interesting to see what companies like VMWare could do if this was the case.
According to this post from Apple insider AsSeenOnTV, the launch of iTunes Australia has been indefinately postponed because one of the record labels pulled out.
BTW, ASoT's been pretty outspoken about IP rights. I wonder who's side he's on this time.
The show was aired repeatedly on the Sci Fi channel in the weeks leading up to the series' premiere. A cut-down version was broadcast in prime time on NBC. The miniseries was released on DVD and made available for rent at any video-rental place in the country. There were numerous opportunities for you to watch the show.
Here in Australia, that wasn't the case. The miniseries was broadcast once on network TV. There were no repeats, no broadcasts on cable and the DVD wasn't available until after the series started.
After hearing my friends recommend the show, I downloaded the miniseries as a torrent and then started watching the series on TV.
The point for me is, I would have been more than happy to pay to download the miniseries - but it isn't available. ASoTV, you should know better than most that that's the exact argument your boss used when talking the music industry into the iTMS.
The stealing argument only holds water if there's a loss of revenue from people watching copies instead of renting the show or making up the ratings for a commercial station. Given that I missed the original miniseries screening, had no option for rental and then tuned in for the regular series - how exactly did they lose money from my "theft"?
The new BSG leaves the Star Trek franchise for dead. Star Trek's too squeaky clean. The characters are all either heros or "lovably quirky". There's a magical engineering solution to every problem and a simple moral position on every dilemma.
BSG provides a refreshing contrast. Their fleet is an aging relic, the cast are humanly fallible and their treatment of the cylons raises some very contemporary questions of how civil societies react to enemies within their ranks. BSG is to Star Trek as Bladerunner was to Star Wars. For those of us who aren't 13, that's a lot more interesting.
In my experience, the opinion people hold on the need for comments in code distinguishes them between coders (amateurs/beginners) and developers (pros).
No one with any experience in maintaining a system of reasonable complexity could sanely argue that good comments aren't of benefit during maintenance.
I've worked at dozens of businesses as a consultant over the past few years. Lack of comments is *always* a give away that I've just walked into a bucket shop. Then the sinking feeling starts. Comment free code is often accompanied by the usual suspects:
No spec
Few functions and/or functions that do too much
No testing schedule
I've seen this so often it's like Groundhog Day! It's particularly inexcusable if the developers have some experience of maintaining their own code. Perhaps their egos get in the way of critically analysing how they could do a better job. In development, arrogance is the brother of mediocrity.
I wonder if there's a market for combining a VOIP service like Vonage, with a customizable hosted service like Salesforce.com. That way, all the customer needs is a reliable net connection and a bunch of IP phones (or POTS phones with POTS to IP connectors). If everything's configurable via a web interface, why does the Asterisk server need to be at each office? A VOIP services company could just host a cluster of Asterisk servers with multiple businesses on it.
Network QoS and voicemail security would be something you'd have to focus on. You could still push out storage to the client if they wanted it though.
I'm sure they'd like to avoid landing it too. The main problem is Helium defuses through the walls of airships and they have to be reinflated fairly regularly. You can slow down the defusion by building thicker walls with denser materials but there's always going to be a weight and cost tradeoff there.
The other issue is equipment maintenance. It'll be interesting to see if cosmic radiation causes them any trouble at 60,000ft. It's pretty strong at that level.
There's a couple of things they could do here. An obvious one is charge less for BitTorrent distribution than direct HTTP or FTP downloads. You're doing them a favour by reducing their bandwidth costs, so that should be reflected in a lower price.
The other option is to move the BitTorrent distribution up one tier to the ISPs. If pay per view content is cached at the ISP level you could potentially stream it in real time which is the logical way to send video anyway. The ISPs would save considerable bandwidth on popular files and use BitTorrent amongst each other for distribution.
His devotion to work above everything else borders on an obsessive/compulsive disorder. In How to Start a Startup he documents how he "used to work till 2:00 or 3:00 AM every night, seven days a week". And the there's this:
"During this time you'll do little but work, because when you're not working, your competitors will be. My only leisure activities were running, which I needed to do to keep working anyway, and about fifteen minutes of reading a night. I had a girlfriend for a total of two months during that three year period. Every couple weeks I would take a few hours off to visit a used bookshop or go to a friend's house for dinner. I went to visit my family twice. Otherwise I just worked"
All this for what? The Yahoo fucking store? Look, it's his life and his choice as to how he wants to live it. But I simply don't believe you have to have no life in order to succeed. Look at Richard Branson. He works hard sure, but he hasn't forgotten to have fun along the way.
It's been over 10 years since I was at college and I certainly don't regret that I slacked off and partied a lot of the time. There's a certain freedom at that age that's hard to come by once you get older. You can work hard at any age. Live a little.
The E-Plane project is working on battery powered flight, followed by an electric/fuel cell hybrid and finally full fuel cell operation. There's a 45 page powerpoint preso on it here. Looks interesting.
Slashdot Mirror
As the former Language Architect for ColdFusion, Sim was closely involved in migrating CF from C++ to J2EE. Doesn't sound very anti-Java to me! He's one of the smartest programmers I've met.
What's up with the Quicktime tax for OSX users? Amazingly, you can spend up to $2999 on a shiny new dual processor G5 and Apple then asks you to cough up another $29.95 to "upgrade" QuickTime. Pathetic.
...that this was written up on Tom's *Software* ? The hardware side's pretty interesting, but the software's where this baby's gonna be won and lost. It'd be good to see a high level overview of the algorithms involved.
IIRC pure sodium is generally extracted from molten salt by electrolysis. So that means not only do you have to expend a huge amount of energy to get your sodium, you're also producing toxic, ozone destroying chlorine gas as a byproduct. Oh well, at least they can say it's GREEN!
Bit of a problem that one. As soon as you know the speed of your quantum computer you're unable to find it...
The third network option I'd like to see is peer to peer calling. If you're within range of the other party the two handsets should be able to connect directly. Again, that's possible now with mobile/walkie-talkie hybrids (think Motorola has these) but again there's no handoff when you walk in and out of range.
Apart from obvious savings, P2P calling could introduce some great options like proximity alerts and indication of signal direction when your contacts are nearby. It'd by great for finding friends in a crowd.
btw, anyone else here feel the urge to slap those students dressed as iPods?
Well mate I'm self employed so I guess my boss is monitoring me 24/7!
Keystroke logging can't monitor the uploading of files over HTTPS though. Sure, they could remotely connect to your machine and virtually look over your shoulder the whole time, but it's impossible to effectively monitor a whole workforce that way.
As with most draconian Big Brother initiatives this one won't work. What's to stop employees from just logging into a private webmail account over HTTPS and sending information out that way? Unless employers block browser access, search people for USB keys, iPods, floppies etc there's a dozen ways information can be leaked out of a building.
From what I understand about Zorn, it will allow you to create Flash applications via the Flex framework in Eclipse. Flex is essentially an XML syntax for building Flash applications. It's much more geared to the developer market than the designer oriented Flash IDE. So IMHO, this is a great fit, and good news for Linux developers. Now we just need a 64 bit Flash player for Linux...
Just wondering, could one or more of the supplementary cores be used for translating x86 instructions to RISC (and back) for the Cells main processor? I'm not really familiar with the Cell's architecture but it'd be interesting to see what companies like VMWare could do if this was the case.
KAAAAAAAAHHHHNNNN!!!!!!
BTW, ASoT's been pretty outspoken about IP rights. I wonder who's side he's on this time.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation is Australia's largest scientific research organisation - funded by the federal government here.
Here in Australia, that wasn't the case. The miniseries was broadcast once on network TV. There were no repeats, no broadcasts on cable and the DVD wasn't available until after the series started.
After hearing my friends recommend the show, I downloaded the miniseries as a torrent and then started watching the series on TV.
The point for me is, I would have been more than happy to pay to download the miniseries - but it isn't available. ASoTV, you should know better than most that that's the exact argument your boss used when talking the music industry into the iTMS.
The stealing argument only holds water if there's a loss of revenue from people watching copies instead of renting the show or making up the ratings for a commercial station. Given that I missed the original miniseries screening, had no option for rental and then tuned in for the regular series - how exactly did they lose money from my "theft"?
BSG provides a refreshing contrast. Their fleet is an aging relic, the cast are humanly fallible and their treatment of the cylons raises some very contemporary questions of how civil societies react to enemies within their ranks. BSG is to Star Trek as Bladerunner was to Star Wars. For those of us who aren't 13, that's a lot more interesting.
No one with any experience in maintaining a system of reasonable complexity could sanely argue that good comments aren't of benefit during maintenance.
I've worked at dozens of businesses as a consultant over the past few years. Lack of comments is *always* a give away that I've just walked into a bucket shop. Then the sinking feeling starts. Comment free code is often accompanied by the usual suspects:
I've seen this so often it's like Groundhog Day! It's particularly inexcusable if the developers have some experience of maintaining their own code. Perhaps their egos get in the way of critically analysing how they could do a better job. In development, arrogance is the brother of mediocrity.
Paul Graham's article is just a clever PR piece put out by Dave Winer to encourage blogging?!
Fair call Em. I should know better - the way people use "their", "there" and "they're" drives me nuts!
Network QoS and voicemail security would be something you'd have to focus on. You could still push out storage to the client if they wanted it though.
The other issue is equipment maintenance. It'll be interesting to see if cosmic radiation causes them any trouble at 60,000ft. It's pretty strong at that level.
The other option is to move the BitTorrent distribution up one tier to the ISPs. If pay per view content is cached at the ISP level you could potentially stream it in real time which is the logical way to send video anyway. The ISPs would save considerable bandwidth on popular files and use BitTorrent amongst each other for distribution.
"During this time you'll do little but work, because when you're not working, your competitors will be. My only leisure activities were running, which I needed to do to keep working anyway, and about fifteen minutes of reading a night. I had a girlfriend for a total of two months during that three year period. Every couple weeks I would take a few hours off to visit a used bookshop or go to a friend's house for dinner. I went to visit my family twice. Otherwise I just worked"
All this for what? The Yahoo fucking store? Look, it's his life and his choice as to how he wants to live it. But I simply don't believe you have to have no life in order to succeed. Look at Richard Branson. He works hard sure, but he hasn't forgotten to have fun along the way.
It's been over 10 years since I was at college and I certainly don't regret that I slacked off and partied a lot of the time. There's a certain freedom at that age that's hard to come by once you get older. You can work hard at any age. Live a little.
The E-Plane project is working on battery powered flight, followed by an electric/fuel cell hybrid and finally full fuel cell operation. There's a 45 page powerpoint preso on it here. Looks interesting.