I reckon he could do the "american pretending to be a brit" accent... I'm told he got the oz accent with an american twang just right in the end of series two.
Thank god it's back on Five here in the UK!
See Dead Again for the worst British American accent I've ever heard. I can't watch it without cringing every time Branagh speaks (mind you it's a terrible film anyway).
Yep. I'd be prepared to pay a lot for a machine with those approximate specs. Presumably there's no demand for such a gizmo, since there's nothing much available in the clamshell form. But it puzzles me, because most of the geeks I know have bemoaned the lack of a "serious" pocket computing device.
I'd particularly recommend Bloom, but I also like The Collapsium. As with all SF, however, this is fiction. But reading SF can certainly lead to an interest in hard science - to which end, he's written a non-fiction book called "Hacking Matter" which is pretty good.
Other non-fiction I'd recommend would be the excellent Bill Bryson "A short history of nearly evreything." - I really wish that had been available when I was in high school.
The PictureBook series (I had one) was too big to put in a pocket, but far too small to be comfortable when typing. It also had a dreadful battery life. Worst of both worlds. This gizmo looks like it suffers from exactly the same problems, as you point out.
What I really want to buy is a clamshell pocket PC of some sort so that I can do serious computing in ad-hoc environments. Something like the old Psion series clamshells, but with more modern hardware. I like the Palm derived machines, but you can't really program with a stylus and the various optional keyboards are always a bit too jerry rigged.
If I can't put it in my pocket, there's no point in making it small. Sadly there doesn't seem to be a clamshell with a proper keyboard that fits the bill.
Last time I used it, it had a few plugins (Spring for example) and wizards included automatically, but nothing for which there weren't adequate or superior alternatives.
On the whole I prefered Eclipse with the Web Tools Platform and any other plugins specific to the tasks I was actually involved in. Unless it's advanced a great deal, don't bother.
I like his comment about The Architect from The Matrix Reloaded as a candidate for playing him in a movie. The analogy is neat and there really is a more than passing resemblance!
Minor update: Dell just phoned to let me know they'd be refunding me £13.96. I didn't have to chase this, and my initial note to them was polite, terse, and didn't mention refunds at all - only that I didn't accept the EULA.
And even Google started small, they just had something new and way better than what was there.
Absolutely. The best alternative, Altavista, was very good, but Google was outstanding. And Altavista had dissolved into a messy "portal" while Google had the clean minimal usability approach that Altavista used to have.
Build a better search engine and the world will beat a path to your door:-)
All the arguments I ever heard in favour of Quaero sounded extremely misguided big-government oriented. If a decent competitor to Google arises it won't be from the public sector.
I agree - that seems the most likely interpretation. I can't see a court agreeing to a paper contract that read "by leaving the room in which you read this contract, you accept..." and I have more faith than most in the common sense of our legal system.
Not that this is likely to go to court. Regardless of my statutory rights, nothing Dell published implied that I had a right to a refund - so I think it would be unreasonable to demand one. I'll ask, but I won't insist. And while the zealots may find this shocking, I don't have a problem with letting Dell "bundle" an OS with a computer any more than I have with Matsushita "bundling" remote controls with their CD players.
In the end Linux has to win on its own merits. I do think that Microsoft should be prevented from using monopoly powers to prevent PC retailers from distributing other OS's with their machines, but I don't think those retailers should be forced to provide a bare-bones or alternative OS as an option.
Anyway, having gotten Kubuntu (I changed my mind) up and running with a little tweaking (graphics mode and WLan drivers) I'd recommend this machine as a cheap Linux box regardless of whether you go for the license refund or not.
I don't see how an application's reconfiguring the machine to boot into an OS constitutes my acceptance of the license, when the EULA merely states that pressing a key will indicate acceptance of the license.
Regardless, it's an academic point - you can't accidentally accept a contract you fully intend to reject as long as you don't try to take advantage of any rights you wouldn't otherwise have. I haven't booted into XP on the laptop (the subsequent power up was into the BIOS and thence Ubuntu), and it's now wiped.
I don't know if I'm entitled to a refund (nothing in the notes provided with the packaging said that I was) but a previous UK case suggests that I may have a statutory right to one. We'll see what happens, but I'll be happy enough to register a datum with Dell that the license was unwanted.
And in the end, while I suspect any large company of general incompetence, I think corporate malice is much rarer. I'll probably get my refund... eventually.
I bought a Dell the other day. I'll be trying to get a refund for my XP license, just as a matter of principle, since I'm installing Linux (Ubuntu). However, on boot up this machine (an Inspiron 1300) does not display an option to reject the EULA. Instead it displays a message saying that "pressing any key" indicates acceptance of the license!
If you accepted that at face value, that would mean that hitting the off "key" would accept the license. Removing the battery and power cord allows you to switch off without hitting a key I suppose, but how are you supposed to use it if you can never press the keys again?
Ok, that's obviously an excessively paranoid interpretation and I doubt a court would hold that to be a reasonable interpretation even in the unlikely event that Dell were foolish enough to press the point, but it does demonstrate a very dubious use of an EULA.
In practice I expect Dell will pony up the money. We'll see.
This is the first time *ever* I feel DVD menus has enhanced a DVD (you have to see it to understand...)
If you ever sat through TV for Schools programmes, or remember "Pages from Ceefax" when a channel was off air (unthinkable now) then try "Look Around You". The DVD extras and menus are outstanding...
Maybe Harry Potter isn't listed on "great literature" lists, who cares.
Not me. "Great" literature is just literature that's readable enough to have made it down to the next generation. It's worth reading the greats because they're really well written and interesting, not because it's worthy or important.
People get snooty about Harry Potter because it's for children, and because it's popular. More power to J.K.Rowling's elbow. She's done more for "real" literature than any amount of posturing by modern highbrow authors (who're mostly just jealous that they're not multi-millionaires anyway).
As for the suggestion to use an ArrayList instead of basic arrays in Java, it makes me sudder to think of you designing any web systems that may be touched by a high volume of traffic
Then it makes me shudder to think of the design atrocities you're going to commit if by default you use arrays. Use arrays (maybe) if and only if you have established that they are required to solve a proven performance problem. Using them on the offchance that they'll be needed is the height of premature optimisation folly.
If this is an Advert in the UK Edition of the FT, then the appropriate action to take would be to complain to the Advertising Standards Authority. ASA rulings are usually considered newsworthy in a minor way, and would raise awareness of the issue.
Slashdot Mirror
> Sentence in the above post should have read as follows
I just thought you were being ironic...
I reckon he could do the "american pretending to be a brit" accent... I'm told he got the oz accent with an american twang just right in the end of series two.
Thank god it's back on Five here in the UK!
See Dead Again for the worst British American accent I've ever heard. I can't watch it without cringing every time Branagh speaks (mind you it's a terrible film anyway).
Yep. I'd be prepared to pay a lot for a machine with those approximate specs. Presumably there's no demand for such a gizmo, since there's nothing much available in the clamshell form. But it puzzles me, because most of the geeks I know have bemoaned the lack of a "serious" pocket computing device.
I'd particularly recommend Bloom, but I also like The Collapsium. As with all SF, however, this is fiction. But reading SF can certainly lead to an interest in hard science - to which end, he's written a non-fiction book called "Hacking Matter" which is pretty good.
Other non-fiction I'd recommend would be the excellent Bill Bryson "A short history of nearly evreything." - I really wish that had been available when I was in high school.
The PictureBook series (I had one) was too big to put in a pocket, but far too small to be comfortable when typing. It also had a dreadful battery life. Worst of both worlds. This gizmo looks like it suffers from exactly the same problems, as you point out.
What I really want to buy is a clamshell pocket PC of some sort so that I can do serious computing in ad-hoc environments. Something like the old Psion series clamshells, but with more modern hardware. I like the Palm derived machines, but you can't really program with a stylus and the various optional keyboards are always a bit too jerry rigged.
If I can't put it in my pocket, there's no point in making it small. Sadly there doesn't seem to be a clamshell with a proper keyboard that fits the bill.
Not a great deal.
Last time I used it, it had a few plugins (Spring for example) and wizards included automatically, but nothing for which there weren't adequate or superior alternatives.
On the whole I prefered Eclipse with the Web Tools Platform and any other plugins specific to the tasks I was actually involved in. Unless it's advanced a great deal, don't bother.
And here's someone's blog entry making the point better than I did.
I like his comment about The Architect from The Matrix Reloaded as a candidate for playing him in a movie. The analogy is neat and there really is a more than passing resemblance!
Vint
It's nice to see an eminent man with a proper sense of humour.
http://softwareblogs.intel.com/2006/10/19/why-wind ows-threads-are-better-than-posix-threads/#comment -1322
Any specific examples? I'm not saying you're wrong, just that so far I've been pleasantly surprised by the general availability of geeky items.
To paraphrase DNA, "Maybe it just feels good about being a planet?"
"the situation was not digitally simulated" = "we guessed"
And at that I think I'm being generous about their motives.
That doesn't seem totally unreasonable from their POV because they don't know that your birthday is correct in their file.
...and I hate Macs and don't own an iPod.
Time to buy some APPL I think.
Minor update: Dell just phoned to let me know they'd be refunding me £13.96. I didn't have to chase this, and my initial note to them was polite, terse, and didn't mention refunds at all - only that I didn't accept the EULA.
So, what's BSD then, chopped liver?
PS A cookie to the first person who can tell me what movie the subject of my post is from. :)
Mmm... extruded plastic dingus...
Absolutely. The best alternative, Altavista, was very good, but Google was outstanding. And Altavista had dissolved into a messy "portal" while Google had the clean minimal usability approach that Altavista used to have.
Build a better search engine and the world will beat a path to your door
All the arguments I ever heard in favour of Quaero sounded extremely misguided big-government oriented. If a decent competitor to Google arises it won't be from the public sector.
I agree - that seems the most likely interpretation. I can't see a court agreeing to a paper contract that read "by leaving the room in which you read this contract, you accept..." and I have more faith than most in the common sense of our legal system.
Not that this is likely to go to court. Regardless of my statutory rights, nothing Dell published implied that I had a right to a refund - so I think it would be unreasonable to demand one. I'll ask, but I won't insist. And while the zealots may find this shocking, I don't have a problem with letting Dell "bundle" an OS with a computer any more than I have with Matsushita "bundling" remote controls with their CD players.
In the end Linux has to win on its own merits. I do think that Microsoft should be prevented from using monopoly powers to prevent PC retailers from distributing other OS's with their machines, but I don't think those retailers should be forced to provide a bare-bones or alternative OS as an option.
Anyway, having gotten Kubuntu (I changed my mind) up and running with a little tweaking (graphics mode and WLan drivers) I'd recommend this machine as a cheap Linux box regardless of whether you go for the license refund or not.
I don't see how an application's reconfiguring the machine to boot into an OS constitutes my acceptance of the license, when the EULA merely states that pressing a key will indicate acceptance of the license.
Regardless, it's an academic point - you can't accidentally accept a contract you fully intend to reject as long as you don't try to take advantage of any rights you wouldn't otherwise have. I haven't booted into XP on the laptop (the subsequent power up was into the BIOS and thence Ubuntu), and it's now wiped.
I don't know if I'm entitled to a refund (nothing in the notes provided with the packaging said that I was) but a previous UK case suggests that I may have a statutory right to one. We'll see what happens, but I'll be happy enough to register a datum with Dell that the license was unwanted.
And in the end, while I suspect any large company of general incompetence, I think corporate malice is much rarer. I'll probably get my refund... eventually.
I bought a Dell the other day. I'll be trying to get a refund for my XP license, just as a matter of principle, since I'm installing Linux (Ubuntu). However, on boot up this machine (an Inspiron 1300) does not display an option to reject the EULA. Instead it displays a message saying that "pressing any key" indicates acceptance of the license!
If you accepted that at face value, that would mean that hitting the off "key" would accept the license. Removing the battery and power cord allows you to switch off without hitting a key I suppose, but how are you supposed to use it if you can never press the keys again?
Ok, that's obviously an excessively paranoid interpretation and I doubt a court would hold that to be a reasonable interpretation even in the unlikely event that Dell were foolish enough to press the point, but it does demonstrate a very dubious use of an EULA.
In practice I expect Dell will pony up the money. We'll see.
This is the first time *ever* I feel DVD menus has enhanced a DVD (you have to see it to understand...)
If you ever sat through TV for Schools programmes, or remember "Pages from Ceefax" when a channel was off air (unthinkable now) then try "Look Around You". The DVD extras and menus are outstanding...
Not me. "Great" literature is just literature that's readable enough to have made it down to the next generation. It's worth reading the greats because they're really well written and interesting, not because it's worthy or important.
People get snooty about Harry Potter because it's for children, and because it's popular. More power to J.K.Rowling's elbow. She's done more for "real" literature than any amount of posturing by modern highbrow authors (who're mostly just jealous that they're not multi-millionaires anyway).
As for the suggestion to use an ArrayList instead of basic arrays in Java, it makes me sudder to think of you designing any web systems that may be touched by a high volume of traffic
Then it makes me shudder to think of the design atrocities you're going to commit if by default you use arrays. Use arrays (maybe) if and only if you have established that they are required to solve a proven performance problem. Using them on the offchance that they'll be needed is the height of premature optimisation folly.
If this is an Advert in the UK Edition of the FT, then the appropriate action to take would be to complain to the Advertising Standards Authority. ASA rulings are usually considered newsworthy in a minor way, and would raise awareness of the issue.