You hit the nail on the head! I am an open source contributor, have been for over a decade now. I haven't found the time to write my own entire projects yet, but I have been sending out a steady stream of patches ever since I first booted linux back in 1994.
My motivation has never been about getting money. Nine times out of ten, it has been that I wanted some program to do something that it didn't, so I made the change myself. A lot of the patches I make don't get adopted (except on my own box), but whenever I fix a bug, it usually is.
If you're a programmer contributing to open source projects, chances are you are just fine financially. I for one have been turning paying jobs away. I get at least 2 offers for permanent positions and a handful of contracts every week. The bottom line is, if you are a good software developer, you are in incredible and overwhelming demand.
It's the same with acting. Tech people get "type cast". Take me for instance. I have a degree in Computer Science, I have worked on numerous research projects dealing with hard core programming.
Job wise, however, back in 1999 I took a job as a systems developer for a web company. I did backend systems for crappy dot com wannabe businesses. Now I've got the stigma of "web developer" on me. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get recruiters, employers, or even colleagues to see me as much else.
I hate the web. I hate working on the web. All web apps are just glorified database queries.
This is not what I went to school for. However, slow starvation doesn't appeal to me either.
So suck it up. You have no way out. Ultimately, every one of is us a bundle of pain racing toward oblivion anyway, so it doesn't really matter.
Two of the items on your list are available if you jailbreak your phone.
1. RPN Calculator: You can run emulators of the HP15C, (and the 12C and 16C for that matter). These are native apps, so they run at top speed, that is to say, faster than the original calculators. The touch screen interface is quite lovely for these calcs, and the best part is, HP fans already know them!
2. IM Client: Apollo is a wonderful chat client which I use all the time. You can also install BitchX to IRC from the terminal, or you can install an iphone version of colloquy.
Those are "old school" laws. The bill of rights was written by people who genuinely wanted to do good. The Civil Rights Act falls into the same category, but it was tempered with circumstances. Really, the Civil Rights Act was paid for by votes, fear of rioting, and international pressure. It was passed at a time where government was starting to tip towards being bought.
I'd wager that no law in the past 20-30 years has been passed without a large sum of money changing hands.
Don't like it? Pick out the good politians. Ron Paul comes close, but of course corporations are silencing him.
I think the problem is not in setting out a clear definition. The problem is that OSI is assuming authority that no one has given them. A lot of people are in this community because they abhor that kind of authority. By simply declaring "We're in charge, this is what Open Source is" the OSI has become what it has beheld. That's why so many of us are upset. It's all about the arrogance of OSI and has nothing to do with being adverse to the prevention of market confusion.
If anyone has a solution to stupid, ignorant voters coupled with evil politicians, I'd like to hear it, cuz I'm out of ideas. It's called the 2nd ammendment.....
The thing is, even if it is illegal, they're safe. So long as they make sure to only apply that policy to people who aren't rich that is. If you make a normal salary, you have no access to the legal system. Laws only hurt you, you aren't wealthy enough for them to help you, so just buy another laptop!
The problem I have with your attitude is simple. Doctors spend long hours and lots of time schooling, followed by a period in which they work extremely long hours for next to nothing. That much is certain. What about Engineers and Programmers? We go through the same crap, but we don't make near as much as you do. What is it that makes you feel your time is worth $800.00 an hour? (I arrived at this figure by timing how long my physician spends with me vs. how much I pay them.) The reason is simple. People would die without your help. What you are doing is nothing more than taking advantage of sick people, milking them for all they are worth. It is tantamount to extortion, except you use illness instead of violence.
You think you're the only type of business that has overhead? Virtually every business pays an office staff, has to be insured, needs a building, etc. Why don't they charge outrageous fees? It comes back to the arrogant sense of entitlement that you exhibit. My plumber is more professional and friendly than any doctor I have ever seen. He comes to my home, does his job and courteously thanks me. He charges less than my doctor. If he can do it, why can't you?
I will never trust you. You are a doctor. It is in your best interest to keep me just well enough to survive, but sick enough to keep returning. You are exceptionally greedy, and you wouldn't hesitate to prolong, rather than cure, any illness. I will only go to doctors if I need to, and I will second guess EVERYTHING you say. It is for the best, because you wouldn't hesitate to kill me by making me take medications that are dangerous, but which you get kickbacks for prescribing.
The HP48 is by far the best graphing calculator ever. It has a steep learning curve, but once you master RPN, you'll never go back.
Unfortunately the HP48 has been discontinued. There is the HP49, but it isn't as sturdy. Fortunately, though, there is a program for PDA's called "Power48" which is free, and will allow your PDA to perform like an hp48.
Yeah, this promise has been made before. I heard back in Egypt they sold Pharaohs on the idea of recording sound in pottery. Not even the mythbusters could replay the sound....
I thought I would deviate a bit and offer a more technological solution.
Let's examine the facts. He can't hear it, and neither can the police. That means you can't prove that it is making a load sound. However, that goes the other way too. He can't prove that it ISN'T making a sound and cannot even notice when it stops working.
Now, if you were to destroy the box, he would notice. If you stole it, again he would notice. If you pulled the power out, he would still notice because it wouldn't light up any more. Any cirucit disruption would cause the power indicator to not glow.
So, here is what you do. You get a 50 ohm resistor, and then sneak over there in the dead of the night with a screwdriver and a soldering iron. These devices are made with ultrasonic transducers. An ultrasonic transducer looks like a small can with holes in the top. It may also use speakers, which are readily identifiable. Simply sever the leads to the transducers/speakers and then solder a 50 ohm resistor in the place of each one. Put the device back together and no one knows that you have tampered with it.
If you do this, all indicator lights that the device has will still work. Every young person will notice the absence of sound, and the older people will be none the wiser. You get your peace back, and he gets to keep his smugness, everyone wins!
I have a good one called the "fc console" by a company called "yobo". The USA version can play NES games. I've only found 1 exception. It doesn't play gauntlet for whatever reason.
Still for $40.00, you can't beat it!
Another Era Death
on
PHRACK Final
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
It seems that all the fun stuff in the technology world is going away. The whole mentality of the industry has changed. I remember when computers were neat and fun, now they are just about as amusing as a toaster.
Remember all the innovative games? Remember when new things came out? Remember when you spent hours in the basement trying to trick it all into doing things it wasn't supposed to?
I do.
But those days are long gone. I think it's because you can do too much with cheap hardware now. There is no challenge. Getting that last few compute cycles out of a program saves you a millionth of a microsecond. Who cares? The machines are too capable, so there is no challenge, hence no fun.
Now to go write some code for my hp48. At least it's still sufficiently slow!
I think you really should calm down and look at yourself a bit more closely.
The behavior you're exhibiting only furthers the image of you as a slack-jawed yokel. The poster you have cussed out did provide a valid application of your thinking. That's the way he sees your viewpoint, and the way he sees his own. The fact that you reacted so harshly to it shows that you yourself are not willing to be reasonable.
It is also certainly true that both views are correct. All that it takes is to change your perspective. To that end I would submit that perspective and situation are very important to determining if an act is good or bad.
Consider this example. If I swing a baseball bat at a baseball, that's good. I'm just enjoying a nice day in the park. If I swing a baseball bat at a man, most would say that's bad. BUT if I'm swinging a baseball bat at a man that is attacking you, that's good.
All sorts of things can effect whether an action is good or bad. To universally apply a designation of "good" or "bad" is folly.
Also, you said that the liberal viewpoint does not leave much room for free will, and yet, you yourself adopt the stance "bad people do bad things because they are inherently bad." Your view also restricts free will. If I am a bad person, I will do bad things. There is no avoiding it according to you. What made me bad? Nothing, it was predetermined.
So in short, you are short tempered, and you have failed to think all your points through. You see the world as black and white, good and evil, and you have illustrated that you feel that division lies in rich and poor, and in conservative and republican.
Of course my rom just flashes random colors and a line that remains constant going back and forth.
Considering what the atari 2600 environment is like, I'm damn proud of this. It's not exactly like other architectures. Even if you are used to programming in assembly for embedded devices with tight memory constraints, the VCS is STILL a major wakeup call.
Here are some of the challenges that you will encounter:
There is no interrupt vector system. System functions are accomplished by means of the stella chip, which looks like a section in RAM. writing and/or reading from certain memory locations triggers events (such as drawing to the screen and such)
TIMING is YOUR responsibility! You have to count clock cycles while you program, and you have to write the code to redraw your screen scan line by scanline on each electron beam pass of the TV.
Computation has to be performed mostly during the blanking and return phases of the electron beam. You know you have 72 clock cycles in which to operate your game logic before you have to begin drawing the screen again
Once your program's timing gets off, you get something that looks nothing like what you intended. My moving line example had a line that stair stepped as it moved. It wasn't until I added a sufficient amount of NOPs that it lined back up.
All in all though, it is a rather ingenious system. Considering when it was made, and the maximum cost of each unit, I'd say kudos to those engineers! I hope to do some more meaningful stuff with it once I have more time. I've plans to hack hardware for it as well!
This might sound a bit odd, but in a way, it is true. The kind of disciplined, structured thinking that goes into mathematics should go into a program. You can write a program without the kinds of process that you use in mathematics, but the end result is never as good as a disciplined structured approach.
Using mathematics skills, it is possible to prove the functionality of a design before the first line of code is ever written. You can reduce the complexity of the logic in a program. You can minimize a program's code to contain ONLY what it needs in order to operate.
Mathematics provides you with the foundation to do that. While you may not be doing a lot of integrals or differentials every day, you can certainly use the same approaches to tackling those problems in any programming task.
Classes in mathematics that are especially helpful would be 3-4 semesters of calculus, 2 of differntial equations, 1 of critical logic and 1 philosophy course in logic and critical thinking.
Try it, I think you will be amazed at how much of a better programmer you can become once your mind is trained to break the complex down into the simple and solve it!
I totally agree! They can subplant my 48GX when they pry it from my cold dead hands.
My 48GX has been a constant companion ever since High School Calculus. With it I have done everything from simple arithmetic (it goes to the grocery store with me) to calculating the effects of planetary collisions. It's myriad functions, it's deliciously good form factor, rugged construction, and the fact I can see 4 stack elements make it my tool of choice!
I don't think I'll be "upgrading" anytime soon! I bet this new one wouldn't survive a trip down the stairs like my HP48GX can (and has)!
No, you can't do that in straight up C. You CAN however, in C++, use a thing called a map container. For more information on that, try out your favorite Standard Template Library (STL) reference or take a look at a document called "C++ annotations"
Just do a search on google for "C++ annotations" and you'll find it available for free download. It's a godsend for those sorts of references.
This just makes me think of a bit of Eastern Mythology. In Hindu, the god (or thing as it were) named Brahma is the one that controls the universe. During the phase in which it is coming into existence/forming. (Vishnu takes care of the creation of Brahma and in the end, Shiva destroys it, leaving Brahma to create it again.)
However, Brahma's control is more correctly transalted as "play" as in the way one would play a musical instrument. So if the Universe is horn shaped, perhaps it's one big musical instrument, with Brahma buzzing his/her/its lips into the little end.
Another intersting tidbit is that Shiva destroys the universe in a dance. So maybe Brahma plays it, Vishnu sings it, and then Shiva dances to it and thereby destroys it.
Ok, just a little random thought. Do with it what you will!
Well, I think it's really impossible to be both intelligent and socially adept.
The problem is not that intelligent people lack social graces. The problem is that being socially accepted depends upon common interests and the ability of people to relate to one another. A person of above average intelligence cannot relate to the common/simple people around them because these people cannot understand the things that interest the intelligent person. As a result, these people seek to oppress the intelligent person making the intelligent ones feel inadequate in order to cover their own inadequacies.
All in all, it's been my experience that it's best to find a way to exploit the common folk around you. Being social with them means playing dumb, acting ignorant, or adopting strange and misguided beliefs. If you can appear to do that, you will relate well. Use that to get a job, or other networking type activities, but NEVER forget that these folk are not as valuable to mankind as you are. Always remember, YOU ARE SUPERIOR. Relate to them in much the same way you relate to a dog, manipulate them to your own ends.
In a word, train the simple folk to serve you. It's their best function, and aside from burger flipping, it is the only contribution to mankind that these folk are capable of making.
hehe, I like that. Most would say microsoft is the agressor, but no. I've developed for windows and I think the OS itself is openly hostile. It just feels like you'r trying to get a monkey to behave, and for the most part it does, but every now and again it lobs fecal matter in your direction. I never really thought about it before, but I suppose a platform can really be hostile...
We do not inherit the world from our parents; we borrow it from our children - Anonymous
Emphasis mine
Actually that is not Anonymous... that quote comes from Chief Seattle. Since when do oppressed people count as anonymous?
Now you know, what you do with it is up to you.
Slashdot Mirror
You hit the nail on the head! I am an open source contributor, have been for over a decade now. I haven't found the time to write my own entire projects yet, but I have been sending out a steady stream of patches ever since I first booted linux back in 1994.
My motivation has never been about getting money. Nine times out of ten, it has been that I wanted some program to do something that it didn't, so I made the change myself. A lot of the patches I make don't get adopted (except on my own box), but whenever I fix a bug, it usually is.
If you're a programmer contributing to open source projects, chances are you are just fine financially. I for one have been turning paying jobs away. I get at least 2 offers for permanent positions and a handful of contracts every week. The bottom line is, if you are a good software developer, you are in incredible and overwhelming demand.
It's the same with acting. Tech people get "type cast". Take me for instance. I have a degree in Computer Science, I have worked on numerous research projects dealing with hard core programming.
Job wise, however, back in 1999 I took a job as a systems developer for a web company. I did backend systems for crappy dot com wannabe businesses. Now I've got the stigma of "web developer" on me. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get recruiters, employers, or even colleagues to see me as much else.
I hate the web. I hate working on the web. All web apps are just glorified database queries.
This is not what I went to school for. However, slow starvation doesn't appeal to me either.
So suck it up. You have no way out. Ultimately, every one of is us a bundle of pain racing toward oblivion anyway, so it doesn't really matter.
The phreaks illegally tapped the FBI at the same time!
Two of the items on your list are available if you jailbreak your phone.
1. RPN Calculator: You can run emulators of the HP15C, (and the 12C and 16C for that matter). These are native apps, so they run at top speed, that is to say, faster than the original calculators. The touch screen interface is quite lovely for these calcs, and the best part is, HP fans already know them!
2. IM Client: Apollo is a wonderful chat client which I use all the time. You can also install BitchX to IRC from the terminal, or you can install an iphone version of colloquy.
Just thought I'd point those 2 out. Enjoy!
that this judge is going to end up on a plain to some country where torture is legal. Enemy Combatant == Enemies of the Dicta... err I mean President
Those are "old school" laws. The bill of rights was written by people who genuinely wanted to do good. The Civil Rights Act falls into the same category, but it was tempered with circumstances. Really, the Civil Rights Act was paid for by votes, fear of rioting, and international pressure. It was passed at a time where government was starting to tip towards being bought.
I'd wager that no law in the past 20-30 years has been passed without a large sum of money changing hands.
Don't like it? Pick out the good politians. Ron Paul comes close, but of course corporations are silencing him.
I think the problem is not in setting out a clear definition. The problem is that OSI is assuming authority that no one has given them. A lot of people are in this community because they abhor that kind of authority. By simply declaring "We're in charge, this is what Open Source is" the OSI has become what it has beheld. That's why so many of us are upset. It's all about the arrogance of OSI and has nothing to do with being adverse to the prevention of market confusion.
The thing is, even if it is illegal, they're safe. So long as they make sure to only apply that policy to people who aren't rich that is. If you make a normal salary, you have no access to the legal system. Laws only hurt you, you aren't wealthy enough for them to help you, so just buy another laptop!
The problem I have with your attitude is simple. Doctors spend long hours and lots of time schooling, followed by a period in which they work extremely long hours for next to nothing. That much is certain. What about Engineers and Programmers? We go through the same crap, but we don't make near as much as you do. What is it that makes you feel your time is worth $800.00 an hour? (I arrived at this figure by timing how long my physician spends with me vs. how much I pay them.) The reason is simple. People would die without your help. What you are doing is nothing more than taking advantage of sick people, milking them for all they are worth. It is tantamount to extortion, except you use illness instead of violence.
You think you're the only type of business that has overhead? Virtually every business pays an office staff, has to be insured, needs a building, etc. Why don't they charge outrageous fees? It comes back to the arrogant sense of entitlement that you exhibit. My plumber is more professional and friendly than any doctor I have ever seen. He comes to my home, does his job and courteously thanks me. He charges less than my doctor. If he can do it, why can't you?
I will never trust you. You are a doctor. It is in your best interest to keep me just well enough to survive, but sick enough to keep returning. You are exceptionally greedy, and you wouldn't hesitate to prolong, rather than cure, any illness. I will only go to doctors if I need to, and I will second guess EVERYTHING you say. It is for the best, because you wouldn't hesitate to kill me by making me take medications that are dangerous, but which you get kickbacks for prescribing.
The HP48 is by far the best graphing calculator ever. It has a steep learning curve, but once you master RPN, you'll never go back.
Unfortunately the HP48 has been discontinued. There is the HP49, but it isn't as sturdy. Fortunately, though, there is a program for PDA's called "Power48" which is free, and will allow your PDA to perform like an hp48.
Yeah, this promise has been made before. I heard back in Egypt they sold Pharaohs on the idea of recording sound in pottery. Not even the mythbusters could replay the sound....
Remember this classic phallacy:
1=2
It's all based on the inability to divide by zero. Now that we can, well....
I thought I would deviate a bit and offer a more technological solution.
Let's examine the facts. He can't hear it, and neither can the police. That means you can't prove that it is making a load sound. However, that goes the other way too. He can't prove that it ISN'T making a sound and cannot even notice when it stops working.
Now, if you were to destroy the box, he would notice. If you stole it, again he would notice. If you pulled the power out, he would still notice because it wouldn't light up any more. Any cirucit disruption would cause the power indicator to not glow.
So, here is what you do. You get a 50 ohm resistor, and then sneak over there in the dead of the night with a screwdriver and a soldering iron. These devices are made with ultrasonic transducers. An ultrasonic transducer looks like a small can with holes in the top. It may also use speakers, which are readily identifiable. Simply sever the leads to the transducers/speakers and then solder a 50 ohm resistor in the place of each one. Put the device back together and no one knows that you have tampered with it.
If you do this, all indicator lights that the device has will still work. Every young person will notice the absence of sound, and the older people will be none the wiser. You get your peace back, and he gets to keep his smugness, everyone wins!
I have a good one called the "fc console" by a company called "yobo". The USA version can play NES games. I've only found 1 exception. It doesn't play gauntlet for whatever reason.
Still for $40.00, you can't beat it!
It seems that all the fun stuff in the technology world is going away. The whole mentality of the industry has changed. I remember when computers were neat and fun, now they are just about as amusing as a toaster.
Remember all the innovative games? Remember when new things came out? Remember when you spent hours in the basement trying to trick it all into doing things it wasn't supposed to?
I do.
But those days are long gone. I think it's because you can do too much with cheap hardware now. There is no challenge. Getting that last few compute cycles out of a program saves you a millionth of a microsecond. Who cares? The machines are too capable, so there is no challenge, hence no fun.
Now to go write some code for my hp48. At least it's still sufficiently slow!
I think you really should calm down and look at yourself a bit more closely.
The behavior you're exhibiting only furthers the image of you as a slack-jawed yokel. The poster you have cussed out did provide a valid application of your thinking. That's the way he sees your viewpoint, and the way he sees his own. The fact that you reacted so harshly to it shows that you yourself are not willing to be reasonable.
It is also certainly true that both views are correct. All that it takes is to change your perspective. To that end I would submit that perspective and situation are very important to determining if an act is good or bad.
Consider this example. If I swing a baseball bat at a baseball, that's good. I'm just enjoying a nice day in the park. If I swing a baseball bat at a man, most would say that's bad. BUT if I'm swinging a baseball bat at a man that is attacking you, that's good.
All sorts of things can effect whether an action is good or bad. To universally apply a designation of "good" or "bad" is folly.
Also, you said that the liberal viewpoint does not leave much room for free will, and yet, you yourself adopt the stance "bad people do bad things because they are inherently bad." Your view also restricts free will. If I am a bad person, I will do bad things. There is no avoiding it according to you. What made me bad? Nothing, it was predetermined.
So in short, you are short tempered, and you have failed to think all your points through. You see the world as black and white, good and evil, and you have illustrated that you feel that division lies in rich and poor, and in conservative and republican.
Here are some of the challenges that you will encounter:
All in all though, it is a rather ingenious system. Considering when it was made, and the maximum cost of each unit, I'd say kudos to those engineers! I hope to do some more meaningful stuff with it once I have more time. I've plans to hack hardware for it as well!
-Bob
Ah, Mathematics, the basis of programming itself!
This might sound a bit odd, but in a way, it is true. The kind of disciplined, structured thinking that goes into mathematics should go into a program. You can write a program without the kinds of process that you use in mathematics, but the end result is never as good as a disciplined structured approach.
Using mathematics skills, it is possible to prove the functionality of a design before the first line of code is ever written. You can reduce the complexity of the logic in a program. You can minimize a program's code to contain ONLY what it needs in order to operate.
Mathematics provides you with the foundation to do that. While you may not be doing a lot of integrals or differentials every day, you can certainly use the same approaches to tackling those problems in any programming task.
Classes in mathematics that are especially helpful would be 3-4 semesters of calculus, 2 of differntial equations, 1 of critical logic and 1 philosophy course in logic and critical thinking.
Try it, I think you will be amazed at how much of a better programmer you can become once your mind is trained to break the complex down into the simple and solve it!
I totally agree! They can subplant my 48GX when they pry it from my cold dead hands.
My 48GX has been a constant companion ever since High School Calculus. With it I have done everything from simple arithmetic (it goes to the grocery store with me) to calculating the effects of planetary collisions. It's myriad functions, it's deliciously good form factor, rugged construction, and the fact I can see 4 stack elements make it my tool of choice!
I don't think I'll be "upgrading" anytime soon! I bet this new one wouldn't survive a trip down the stairs like my HP48GX can (and has)!
-Bob
No, you can't do that in straight up C. You CAN however, in C++, use a thing called a map container. For more information on that, try out your favorite Standard Template Library (STL) reference or take a look at a document called "C++ annotations"
Just do a search on google for "C++ annotations" and you'll find it available for free download. It's a godsend for those sorts of references.
This just makes me think of a bit of Eastern Mythology. In Hindu, the god (or thing as it were) named Brahma is the one that controls the universe. During the phase in which it is coming into existence/forming. (Vishnu takes care of the creation of Brahma and in the end, Shiva destroys it, leaving Brahma to create it again.)
However, Brahma's control is more correctly transalted as "play" as in the way one would play a musical instrument. So if the Universe is horn shaped, perhaps it's one big musical instrument, with Brahma buzzing his/her/its lips into the little end.
Another intersting tidbit is that Shiva destroys the universe in a dance. So maybe Brahma plays it, Vishnu sings it, and then Shiva dances to it and thereby destroys it.
Ok, just a little random thought. Do with it what you will!
Well, I think it's really impossible to be both intelligent and socially adept.
The problem is not that intelligent people lack social graces. The problem is that being socially accepted depends upon common interests and the ability of people to relate to one another. A person of above average intelligence cannot relate to the common/simple people around them because these people cannot understand the things that interest the intelligent person. As a result, these people seek to oppress the intelligent person making the intelligent ones feel inadequate in order to cover their own inadequacies.
All in all, it's been my experience that it's best to find a way to exploit the common folk around you. Being social with them means playing dumb, acting ignorant, or adopting strange and misguided beliefs. If you can appear to do that, you will relate well. Use that to get a job, or other networking type activities, but NEVER forget that these folk are not as valuable to mankind as you are. Always remember, YOU ARE SUPERIOR. Relate to them in much the same way you relate to a dog, manipulate them to your own ends.
In a word, train the simple folk to serve you. It's their best function, and aside from burger flipping, it is the only contribution to mankind that these folk are capable of making.
openly hostile platforms (i.e. windows)
hehe, I like that. Most would say microsoft is the agressor, but no. I've developed for windows and I think the OS itself is openly hostile. It just feels like you'r trying to get a monkey to behave, and for the most part it does, but every now and again it lobs fecal matter in your direction. I never really thought about it before, but I suppose a platform can really be hostile...
We do not inherit the world from our parents; we borrow it from our children - Anonymous
Emphasis mine
Actually that is not Anonymous... that quote comes from Chief Seattle. Since when do oppressed people count as anonymous?
Now you know, what you do with it is up to you.