Pish, the really cool one is the "performed-quadruple-bypass-while-in-the-middle-of -a-jungle-with-a-pocket-knife-two-centimetres-of-r ubber-tubing-and-a-duct-tape" badge!
(But what do I know, I'm still working on my "stupid-bloody-program-compiles-and-maybe-just-may be-WORKS-dag-nab-it" badge:|...)
I completely agree with you there. I love how the entire theme of the book - detachment - is carried through so perfectly and seamlessly without being too obvious. Everybody and everything is detached from each other, from Ford-and-the-Guide to Arthu-and-his-daughter to the aliens, detached from their home planet, their memories, and their identities. And in the background, a strange bird who - like you so nicely put it - works on the ultimate existential horror: everything.
I think Random rocks, just as a representation of how screwed up life can be without friends.
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car.
2. Occasionally your car would just die on the motorway for no reason, and you'd have to restart it. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this, restart and drive on.
3. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you'd have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this too.
4. You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought a "Car 95" or a "Car NT". But then you'd have to buy more seats.
5. Amiga would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive - but it would only run on five percent of the roads.
6. Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their cars which would make their cars go much slower.
7. The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single "General Car Fault" warning light.
8. People would get excited about the "new" features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other cars for many years.
9. We'd all have to switch to Microsoft gas and all auto fluids but the packaging would be superb.
10. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
11. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
12. If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.
13. They wouldn't build their own engines, but form a cartel with their engine suppliers. The latest engine would have 16 cylinders, multi-point fuel injection and 4 turbos, but it would be a side-valve design so you could use Model-T Ford parts on it.
14. There would be an "Engium Pro" with bigger turbos, but it would be slower on most existing roads.
15. Microsoft cars would have a special radio/cassette player which would only be able to listen to Microsoft FM, and play Microsoft Cassettes. Unless of course, you buy the upgrade to use existing stuff.
16. Microsoft would do so well, because even though they don't own any roads, all of the road manufacturers would give away Microsoft cars free, including IBM!
17. If you still ran old versions of car (ie. CarDOS 6.22/CarWIN 3.11), then you would be called old fashioned, but you would be able to drive much faster, and on more roads!
18. If you couldn't afford to buy a new car, then you could just borrow your friends, and then copy it.
19. Whenever you bought a car, you would have to reorganise the ignition for a few days before it worked.
20. You would need to buy an upgrade to run cars on a motorway next to each other.
Anyone willing to update it for the post-XP generation?
Ah, I remember the good ol' days when you could tell a True Geek from a mere Brilliant Programmer by whether or not he had memorized the maximum value of an signed 16-bit integer...
of course, 16-bit is now passe. Anybody know the maximum value of a 32-bit integer? Quickly, no looking allowed!
If I understand the article correctly, the database could only handle 32,000-odd transactions in a month. In December 2004, rescheduling caused by bad weather caused the database to hit its limit exactly on Christmas Day, and everything shut down. It wasn't until December 29th that everything was back up again.
Oh, and they're still using the old system: they've divided the database up, with each half having its own 32,000-transaction limit, but that's about it.
As the Simpsons so nicely put it: Hutz: Mr. Burns, we've got witnesses, precedent and a paper trail a mile long. Burns: Yes. But I have ten high-priced lawyers. Hutz: Ya, ya, yaaa!!! [runs out of office] Homer: He left his briefcase. Hey, it's full of shredded newspaper.
According to the website, Jon had to turn back. He was swimming with his PR manager who was in a raft, but after the raft sprung a leak Jon had to rescue him, sadly ending his Atlantic crossing in the meantime.
Quite a funny writeup, my favourite: "As much as I don't want to talk behind a colleague's back, there is no doubt that we would never have let Eskil assist Jon in the raft had we known he can neither swim nor read maps," says an embarrassed Tor Odland, Opera's Communications Director.
It does just seemed to me as if the point'd been made gratuitously, though. Associate Prof (his current job status in the field: it would've be much more interesting if the breakthrough had come from a full Prof, or a grad student) and University of Utah (if you were interested in following up on it) seems to be more relevant than the country he was born in.
When was the last time Albert Einstein was refered to as "that German professor", or Isaac Newton as "that English scientist"? It's just not relevant.
You could give Opera a whirl. It's got this awesome feature which only shows cached images (from your hard disk). To load images from website, you hit shift-i. Quite cool!
We'd all love to do that, but how would you actually enforce this? Take a racist community, and the companies will choose whites/blacks/browns/pinks because "they were the best".
Me: Hey, you can't take that! Robber: Errr... mind if I license it, then? Me (thinking): I'll give it to you for 60$/month. Plus 250$ deposit. Robber: Deal.
Y'know, Silicon Valley sounds like quite a nice place to live in:D.
(p.s. Prices are off the topic of my head, IANIA: i am not in america) (p.p.s. didn't know about the Apple licensing thing, CrackedButter, thanks for the info. One more source of wrong information has been plugged:)
Slashdot Mirror
"quadruple-bypass-survivor" merit badge.
f -a-jungle-with-a-pocket-knife-two-centimetres-of-r ubber-tubing-and-a-duct-tape" badge!
y be-WORKS-dag-nab-it" badge :| ...)
Pish, the really cool one is the "performed-quadruple-bypass-while-in-the-middle-o
(But what do I know, I'm still working on my "stupid-bloody-program-compiles-and-maybe-just-ma
I completely agree with you there. I love how the entire theme of the book - detachment - is carried through so perfectly and seamlessly without being too obvious. Everybody and everything is detached from each other, from Ford-and-the-Guide to Arthu-and-his-daughter to the aliens, detached from their home planet, their memories, and their identities. And in the background, a strange bird who - like you so nicely put it - works on the ultimate existential horror: everything.
I think Random rocks, just as a representation of how screwed up life can be without friends.
Yes! The safest car is one that does not move ...
I sense a disturbance in a force, as if a million slashdotters all went and googled "if microsoft made cars" ...
Here's the content from the first link on Google:
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car.
2. Occasionally your car would just die on the motorway for no reason, and you'd have to restart it. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this, restart and drive on.
3. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you'd have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this too.
4. You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought a "Car 95" or a "Car NT". But then you'd have to buy more seats.
5. Amiga would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive - but it would only run on five percent of the roads.
6. Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their cars which would make their cars go much slower.
7. The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single "General Car Fault" warning light.
8. People would get excited about the "new" features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other cars for many years.
9. We'd all have to switch to Microsoft gas and all auto fluids but the packaging would be superb.
10. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
11. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
12. If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.
13. They wouldn't build their own engines, but form a cartel with their engine suppliers. The latest engine would have 16 cylinders, multi-point fuel injection and 4 turbos, but it would be a side-valve design so you could use Model-T Ford parts on it.
14. There would be an "Engium Pro" with bigger turbos, but it would be slower on most existing roads.
15. Microsoft cars would have a special radio/cassette player which would only be able to listen to Microsoft FM, and play Microsoft Cassettes. Unless of course, you buy the upgrade to use existing stuff.
16. Microsoft would do so well, because even though they don't own any roads, all of the road manufacturers would give away Microsoft cars free, including IBM!
17. If you still ran old versions of car (ie. CarDOS 6.22/CarWIN 3.11), then you would be called old fashioned, but you would be able to drive much faster, and on more roads!
18. If you couldn't afford to buy a new car, then you could just borrow your friends, and then copy it.
19. Whenever you bought a car, you would have to reorganise the ignition for a few days before it worked.
20. You would need to buy an upgrade to run cars on a motorway next to each other.
Anyone willing to update it for the post-XP generation?
I said signed. And yes, decimal.
:|. Where do I have to pay my 500$ fine? Much thanks.
Btw, I'm afraid I looked at your sig while at home
Ah, I remember the good ol' days when you could tell a True Geek from a mere Brilliant Programmer by whether or not he had memorized the maximum value of an signed 16-bit integer ...
of course, 16-bit is now passe. Anybody know the maximum value of a 32-bit integer? Quickly, no looking allowed!
Most. graphical. slashdot. post. ever. :|
Why did Comair's system fail in the first place?
If I understand the article correctly, the database could only handle 32,000-odd transactions in a month. In December 2004, rescheduling caused by bad weather caused the database to hit its limit exactly on Christmas Day, and everything shut down. It wasn't until December 29th that everything was back up again.
Oh, and they're still using the old system: they've divided the database up, with each half having its own 32,000-transaction limit, but that's about it.
Arkansas and it's pronounciation was an offense to English majors anyway. :P
Why isn't this in the hardware section?
...
Stupid editors
... in the right place, please.
As the Simpsons so nicely put it:
Hutz: Mr. Burns, we've got witnesses, precedent and a paper trail a mile long.
Burns: Yes. But I have ten high-priced lawyers.
Hutz: Ya, ya, yaaa!!! [runs out of office]
Homer: He left his briefcase. Hey, it's full of shredded newspaper.
You better go check that program, you've got one extra ';' ...
Ha! C Grammar Nazi! >:)
According to the website, Jon had to turn back. He was swimming with his PR manager who was in a raft, but after the raft sprung a leak Jon had to rescue him, sadly ending his Atlantic crossing in the meantime.
Quite a funny writeup, my favourite:
"As much as I don't want to talk behind a colleague's back, there is no doubt that we would never have let Eskil assist Jon in the raft had we known he can neither swim nor read maps," says an embarrassed Tor Odland, Opera's Communications Director.
Pish, everybody knows about the Daylight Saving Second, right?
On a completely different note, I'm surprised that only 30% of submitters thought your post was informative! Why all the "funny" mods?
so hardware 'just works'
...
Begun, the Just Works wars have
*concedes the point* :)
Okay, point duly noted :).
It does just seemed to me as if the point'd been made gratuitously, though. Associate Prof (his current job status in the field: it would've be much more interesting if the breakthrough had come from a full Prof, or a grad student) and University of Utah (if you were interested in following up on it) seems to be more relevant than the country he was born in.
When was the last time Albert Einstein was refered to as "that German professor", or Isaac Newton as "that English scientist"? It's just not relevant.
Maybe it's just me.
Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff thats about to happen.
is in any way relevant why?
You could give Opera a whirl. It's got this awesome feature which only shows cached images (from your hard disk). To load images from website, you hit shift-i. Quite cool!
Well, they do have commie pinko unconstitutional fraud to worry about, not to mention the other operating system which "Just Works" :).
You almost feel sorry for Bill. Then you remember Windows ME.
Choose the best regardless of race.
We'd all love to do that, but how would you actually enforce this? Take a racist community, and the companies will choose whites/blacks/browns/pinks because "they were the best".
Yeah I get that a lot :). Bad with words am I. I was being honest.
cheers.
Me: Hey, you can't take that! ... mind if I license it, then?
:D.
:)
Robber: Errr
Me (thinking): I'll give it to you for 60$/month. Plus 250$ deposit.
Robber: Deal.
Y'know, Silicon Valley sounds like quite a nice place to live in
(p.s. Prices are off the topic of my head, IANIA: i am not in america)
(p.p.s. didn't know about the Apple licensing thing, CrackedButter, thanks for the info. One more source of wrong information has been plugged