Sounds to me like you had a netscape problem. Netscape was (and is to some extent) a bloated pig of an application. I've also always found my sparc 2 to behave much better with it's intended OS, SunOS 4 (aka Solaris 1).
I switched from emacs to vi for the same reason. I was sharing/usr via NFS over a 10Mb hub back when disk space was expensive and I was a college student. emacs took forever to load, vi didn't. I use vi to this day.
Sing it brother! As the proud owner of a sparc 2 (no, not an ultra 2) and a user of many sparc 5's and 20's I can say they are fine machines, even if they do run like molasses (ok, a faster 20 isn't *that* slow). The Ultra 5's and 10's are pieces of crap in comparison.
I think the long term commitment is the biggest problem. Congress isn't exactly known for thinking ahead. If we send two-way or unmanned trips, they can stop when there's an inevitable budget shortfall. That decision is impossible with people up there (I can see it now, "Sen. Blah voted to kill brave Americans", yuck).
Look how difficult it was to resupply the aging Mir, and it's final fate? These resupply missions would be orders of magnitude more expensive.
I do think it's an interesting idea, but we've got to be realistic. Like early explorers (think vikings whose names you don't know, not Christopher Colombus), the people that go do not have long and prosporous lives ahead of them.
I have a vt 420 hooked up with a serial switch to be the console on 4 servers. I call it a poor man's KVM. (though I guess that's not technically correct since the M stands for mouse) The cables are just plain serial, the switch was about 20 bucks, and the vt 420 was free. It's a pain to find MMJ cables, so I usually make them myself.
RMS seems to believe free software use should be an all or nothing proposition, especially with regard to proprietary ports to free systems. That's a fine argument to make.
But what about a more gradual approach? So what if someone wants to run Weblogic and Oracle on Linux instead of Weblogic and Oracle on Windows? Maybe the transition to Tomcat and PostgreSQL on Linux is too much for them right now, for technical or political reasons. Maybe they'll switch eventually.
Or, maybe they won't. Isn't it still a positive change, a change providing more freedom? Would RMS rather that that user just stay on Windows forever, using no free or open software at all? I realize that RMS in his ideology above all else, and certainly above any pragmatism, but this kind of transition is a win for everyone. Even if the example user never switches to 100% free software.
I'm not an accountant, but it had more to do with tax audit laws. The law changed such that it was difficult for a company that Arthur Andersen audited to also pay Arther Andersen for IT services. So they spun off the IT services. Most of the big accounting firms did this, I think in the early 90's.
I had the unique(?) experience of taking a CS database class (SQL and theory) and having an internship (Access and practical application) at the same time.
The CS class focused on theory, as a CS class should. The hows, whys and performance characteristics of joins, unions, indexes, table metadata, full table scans, normalized tables, etc. The environment for assignments happened to be embedded SQL in C (preprocessed) on VMS and DEC Rdb (which is now Oracle for VMS, I think). This was SQL at it's most traditional, but I think would would have been a lot better off using a C API (OCI or ODBC) instead of a C preprocessor. Today, maybe Java and JDBC would be a better choice. The OS didn't matter, and the Database didn't really either. I still prefer to write ANSI SQL as text files and just run it in the client of my choice. ER diagrams would be a really good thing to teach, that I didn't see until later. And some info on object relational mapping might be nice.
The internship involved an Access database for financial data and client reporting. It was on the largish side of what can (should?) be done with Access, so that was a bit of a struggle. I don't think Access is the best place to learn SQL, because it's SQL generation tools are like generating HTML with Word and it's SQL dialect and types are one of the more non-standard ones out there. You don't want to teach bad habbits. I think the Relationship window is invaluble, because it hints at proper (normalized) database design, which is missing from far too many programmers skill set, and can be one of the more abstract things in database theory.
I can see Access having a place in a CS/IT database class, but it shouldn't be the focus or the primary environment for assignments.
To further continue the pissing match... I have a version of this made by SAFCO that says it holds 1250 lbs per shelf, but I'm not sure I totally believe it. The individual wires that make up the shelves start to stress after a couple hundred pounds, but I'm not distributing the load very well. I currently have Three workstations and a very heavy color laserjet on this unit. The picture is from before I had the printer.
I guess I'll have to take your word for it. What little Googling can be done on Windows/386 makes it seem like a little known bridge between win 2.x and win 3.x, neither of which was preemptive. So I guess I find it a little hard to believe that Windows/386 was indeed preemtive and they removed that before windows 3.0 was released.
As far as Windows 9x being "less preemptive" than NT I was refering to the clearer distinction between user and kernel in NT. Obviously the kernel can't be preempted during a certain times, but with 9x, my understanding was that user programs sometimes ran pretty much like parts of the kernel. Coming from the DOS legacy, where there was no distinction between user and kernel.
I also don't know if I'd agree that a critical section means that a process can't be preempted. The definition I'd use has to do with guarding a resource. In fact, a recipe for a deadlock is when one process enters a critical section for a resource and is preempted before it releases it, probably as it tries to get yet another resource. When another process tries to get the two resources in the opposite order, you have a deadlock. Maybe you mean something different by critical section.
Windows 3x was not preemptive, it was cooperative. If a process didn't want to give up the cpu, it didn't have to, even if the OS requested that it did so.
My understanding of 95/98/ME is that it wasn't truly preemptive either, at least not at all levels. Perhaps this is why this branch got progressively more stable? More code was either made to cooperate or shifted to runtime environments where it truly was preempted?
OS/2, NT, 2000 and XP are truly preemptive as are all versions of Unix that I've ever heard of.
You're right about Apple though, it took them way too long to get to this.
Need a display *somewhere*, and a transport mechanism to get to it if the display is remote. Some old control system might not have any sort of general purpose networking. Even today, I'd bet most embedded systems don't have X. In any case, it could be that the previous version was a Unix system with only a text console. Unix system with 100BaseT wouldn't seem like a silly thing to say in 1994 when 10BaseT was standard.
One without a framebuffer? (Video card for you PC users out there)
Probably a fair number of ones that are from before X was created too. Unix predates X by about 15 years. Sort of like DOS and Windows, except that X didn't require a complete re-write because the Unix foundation was (and is) a sound one.
I was surprised to see that neither the you nor the author used Gnu Cash. I tried it a few years ago and found it lacking, but I'm currently using 1.8.7-4 (in debian sarge) and it is a fine piece of software. They've even made some progress on the reports that exist, it's not quite up to quicken, but it's getting there. It took me a few minutes to catch on to double entry accounting, and I had a few weird problems with some of my quicken transactions not converting both sides of the double entry correctly.
In total, it took me a couple of hours from apt-get through converting about 9 years of transactions to it being my accounting system of record.
As part of my switch from quicken to gnu cash, I started using turbo tax on the web. If there are extra things that the installed application can do, I haven't missed any of them. It works in Mozilla, and remembers where you left off if anything happens to the network. I guess there could be some security concerns, but I don't imagine that it's any worse than electronic filing. Now the only thing I use windows for is.... I can't remember. It's been months since I booted into it.
Yeah, Windows Help files include everything you could ever need. Most of the Windows developers and administrators I know have completely empty bookshelves in their offices. And I can't remember the last time I was in a bookstore that had a section on Windows Foo or Visual Bar++.
Now come off it. Books are useful when they are more in depth than what is included with the software. MSDN (if that's what you're refering too) is good, but it's not the be all and end all of Windows Programming documentation. I'm not familiar enough with the Windows Admin side to know if there is even an equivelent.
From a programming perspective, I generally find simple man pages to be much more in depth and up to date than MSDN or any other windows help files. And the many HOWTOs from LDP go even further.
Gift cards, amounts and other opinions
on
Christmas Bonuses?
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· Score: 1
In addition to a bonus, do a really nice party or dinner. It's a time for people to meet or catch up with everyone elses family and spend time together away from deadlines, presure. Even work politics might get left behind, if you have a few drinks (I said a FEW). I used to work for a company of about 15 that took everybody out to dinner at one of the best restraunts in the city (it wasn't an expensive city) and picked everyone up in limos. It might be too late to plan something like that this year, but you should be able to do something.
Gift cards are ok, and the American Express ones are basically travelers cheques, so they can be spent anywhere. I've always prefered a straight bonus though.
It's important you feel good about the amount you're giving. If you are initially thinking $1500 is good, and you only give $500, you might feel bad about it later. I think giving gifts is a much more selfish thing than most people acknowledge. I think anything less than $100 is kind of cheap, but it's more about how you give it. I had a boss give me a $100 gift cheque at a time when I knew the company wasn't doing all that well and I would have appreciated it alot more if he hadn't been so damn apoligetic about it. I also would have appreciated them not laying off all my friends. Of course this is the same company that would take us to happy hour and tell us what we could and couldn't order, depending on the specials. And that had a holiday party that was a pot luck.
But whatever you do, don't give on of those stupid glass art things with the company name engraved on it, unless you're going to be huge in 5 years and massively flop in 7 and they call sell it on ebay after all their options tank.
You're right, the feds don't fund very much k-12 education, but they do mandate many of the standards. Ever heard of No Child Left Behind? They also cut funding for other state programs, which has a ripple effect for education.
Hmmmm.... kind of make you wonder where (Iraq) all that money goes (Afghanistan). I just can't think of on what the government (special interest) could be spending that (my) money. Maybe I should write a letter to the president (pupet) and ask him.
I read in one of the previous articles that Cingular and one other carrier are suing. Other carriers are not. Verizon was suing, but they withdraw when they did a study and learned they would gain customers:)
I guess which phones are offered is personal preferences, but Cingular has 19.2k data, Sprint has 144k. (Yes, both are in theory, and both are less in practice). I actually switched from Sprint to Cingular a few years ago because Sprint had dropped calls and Cingular had a really small Nokia phone I liked and was one of the original analog carriers in my area (Washington DC). This means that they have a lower frequency (900mhz vs Sprint's 1900mhz) that goes through structures better and should work better inside. The reality is that it doesn't really, and I don't care as much about dropped calls because it was only the long ones and most of those are on my land line now.
...and going to Sprint. I want a flip-pda/phone. I know Sprint's service isn't as good, but they have faster data and better phones. Not to mention more reasonable prices. Cingular is one of the carriers that's worried about losing customers, and I can understand why. This is definately a case where they should try competing instead of going to court, but I guess they're desperate.
To me the most basic level is syntax and the ability to use that syntax to create a logical flow. It doesn't have to be pretty, but it has to be correct. Loop the correct number of times, run conditional portions when you actually mean to run them. I've worked with CS grads that couldn't do that. I fired a PhD CS grad who couldn't do that. And in this particular case, their PhD was from a reasonably good (at least top 50 or so), nationally known school. I'm going to stop now that I'm sufficiently off topic.
It's quite possible the I'm misusing the concept of a bell curve. I'm not a statistician, I just work for one. At the very least, your percentages are off. 10% are above 120. And I don't think IQ is linear, but I'm not sure.
In any case, I've seen way too many CS majors, some with advanced degrees, that couldn't code their way out of a for loop to accept that a CS degree brings someone beyond the most basic level of programming skills.
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I switched from emacs to vi for the same reason. I was sharing /usr via NFS over a 10Mb hub back when disk space was expensive and I was a college student. emacs took forever to load, vi didn't. I use vi to this day.
Sing it brother! As the proud owner of a sparc 2 (no, not an ultra 2) and a user of many sparc 5's and 20's I can say they are fine machines, even if they do run like molasses (ok, a faster 20 isn't *that* slow). The Ultra 5's and 10's are pieces of crap in comparison.
Look how difficult it was to resupply the aging Mir, and it's final fate? These resupply missions would be orders of magnitude more expensive.
I do think it's an interesting idea, but we've got to be realistic. Like early explorers (think vikings whose names you don't know, not Christopher Colombus), the people that go do not have long and prosporous lives ahead of them.
I have a vt 420 hooked up with a serial switch to be the console on 4 servers. I call it a poor man's KVM. (though I guess that's not technically correct since the M stands for mouse) The cables are just plain serial, the switch was about 20 bucks, and the vt 420 was free. It's a pain to find MMJ cables, so I usually make them myself.
FYI: here it either meaning, depending on the context.
But what about a more gradual approach? So what if someone wants to run Weblogic and Oracle on Linux instead of Weblogic and Oracle on Windows? Maybe the transition to Tomcat and PostgreSQL on Linux is too much for them right now, for technical or political reasons. Maybe they'll switch eventually.
Or, maybe they won't. Isn't it still a positive change, a change providing more freedom? Would RMS rather that that user just stay on Windows forever, using no free or open software at all? I realize that RMS in his ideology above all else, and certainly above any pragmatism, but this kind of transition is a win for everyone. Even if the example user never switches to 100% free software.
I'm not an accountant, but it had more to do with tax audit laws. The law changed such that it was difficult for a company that Arthur Andersen audited to also pay Arther Andersen for IT services. So they spun off the IT services. Most of the big accounting firms did this, I think in the early 90's.
The CS class focused on theory, as a CS class should. The hows, whys and performance characteristics of joins, unions, indexes, table metadata, full table scans, normalized tables, etc. The environment for assignments happened to be embedded SQL in C (preprocessed) on VMS and DEC Rdb (which is now Oracle for VMS, I think). This was SQL at it's most traditional, but I think would would have been a lot better off using a C API (OCI or ODBC) instead of a C preprocessor. Today, maybe Java and JDBC would be a better choice. The OS didn't matter, and the Database didn't really either. I still prefer to write ANSI SQL as text files and just run it in the client of my choice. ER diagrams would be a really good thing to teach, that I didn't see until later. And some info on object relational mapping might be nice.
The internship involved an Access database for financial data and client reporting. It was on the largish side of what can (should?) be done with Access, so that was a bit of a struggle. I don't think Access is the best place to learn SQL, because it's SQL generation tools are like generating HTML with Word and it's SQL dialect and types are one of the more non-standard ones out there. You don't want to teach bad habbits. I think the Relationship window is invaluble, because it hints at proper (normalized) database design, which is missing from far too many programmers skill set, and can be one of the more abstract things in database theory.
I can see Access having a place in a CS/IT database class, but it shouldn't be the focus or the primary environment for assignments.
To further continue the pissing match... I have a version of this made by SAFCO that says it holds 1250 lbs per shelf, but I'm not sure I totally believe it. The individual wires that make up the shelves start to stress after a couple hundred pounds, but I'm not distributing the load very well. I currently have Three workstations and a very heavy color laserjet on this unit. The picture is from before I had the printer.
As far as Windows 9x being "less preemptive" than NT I was refering to the clearer distinction between user and kernel in NT. Obviously the kernel can't be preempted during a certain times, but with 9x, my understanding was that user programs sometimes ran pretty much like parts of the kernel. Coming from the DOS legacy, where there was no distinction between user and kernel.
I also don't know if I'd agree that a critical section means that a process can't be preempted. The definition I'd use has to do with guarding a resource. In fact, a recipe for a deadlock is when one process enters a critical section for a resource and is preempted before it releases it, probably as it tries to get yet another resource. When another process tries to get the two resources in the opposite order, you have a deadlock. Maybe you mean something different by critical section.
My understanding of 95/98/ME is that it wasn't truly preemptive either, at least not at all levels. Perhaps this is why this branch got progressively more stable? More code was either made to cooperate or shifted to runtime environments where it truly was preempted?
OS/2, NT, 2000 and XP are truly preemptive as are all versions of Unix that I've ever heard of.
You're right about Apple though, it took them way too long to get to this.
Need a display *somewhere*, and a transport mechanism to get to it if the display is remote. Some old control system might not have any sort of general purpose networking. Even today, I'd bet most embedded systems don't have X. In any case, it could be that the previous version was a Unix system with only a text console. Unix system with 100BaseT wouldn't seem like a silly thing to say in 1994 when 10BaseT was standard.
Probably a fair number of ones that are from before X was created too. Unix predates X by about 15 years. Sort of like DOS and Windows, except that X didn't require a complete re-write because the Unix foundation was (and is) a sound one.
In total, it took me a couple of hours from apt-get through converting about 9 years of transactions to it being my accounting system of record.
As part of my switch from quicken to gnu cash, I started using turbo tax on the web. If there are extra things that the installed application can do, I haven't missed any of them. It works in Mozilla, and remembers where you left off if anything happens to the network. I guess there could be some security concerns, but I don't imagine that it's any worse than electronic filing. Now the only thing I use windows for is.... I can't remember. It's been months since I booted into it.
Now come off it. Books are useful when they are more in depth than what is included with the software. MSDN (if that's what you're refering too) is good, but it's not the be all and end all of Windows Programming documentation. I'm not familiar enough with the Windows Admin side to know if there is even an equivelent.
From a programming perspective, I generally find simple man pages to be much more in depth and up to date than MSDN or any other windows help files. And the many HOWTOs from LDP go even further.
Maybe there's a new push, but they never stopped looking for people
The store is called WaWa . What did you expect?!
Gift cards are ok, and the American Express ones are basically travelers cheques, so they can be spent anywhere. I've always prefered a straight bonus though.
It's important you feel good about the amount you're giving. If you are initially thinking $1500 is good, and you only give $500, you might feel bad about it later. I think giving gifts is a much more selfish thing than most people acknowledge. I think anything less than $100 is kind of cheap, but it's more about how you give it. I had a boss give me a $100 gift cheque at a time when I knew the company wasn't doing all that well and I would have appreciated it alot more if he hadn't been so damn apoligetic about it. I also would have appreciated them not laying off all my friends. Of course this is the same company that would take us to happy hour and tell us what we could and couldn't order, depending on the specials. And that had a holiday party that was a pot luck.
But whatever you do, don't give on of those stupid glass art things with the company name engraved on it, unless you're going to be huge in 5 years and massively flop in 7 and they call sell it on ebay after all their options tank.
You're right, the feds don't fund very much k-12 education, but they do mandate many of the standards. Ever heard of No Child Left Behind? They also cut funding for other state programs, which has a ripple effect for education.
Hmmmm.... kind of make you wonder where (Iraq) all that money goes (Afghanistan). I just can't think of on what the government (special interest) could be spending that (my) money. Maybe I should write a letter to the president (pupet) and ask him.
I guess which phones are offered is personal preferences, but Cingular has 19.2k data, Sprint has 144k. (Yes, both are in theory, and both are less in practice). I actually switched from Sprint to Cingular a few years ago because Sprint had dropped calls and Cingular had a really small Nokia phone I liked and was one of the original analog carriers in my area (Washington DC). This means that they have a lower frequency (900mhz vs Sprint's 1900mhz) that goes through structures better and should work better inside. The reality is that it doesn't really, and I don't care as much about dropped calls because it was only the long ones and most of those are on my land line now.
No. Mobile to land line portability is later. Maybe.
...and going to Sprint. I want a flip-pda/phone. I know Sprint's service isn't as good, but they have faster data and better phones. Not to mention more reasonable prices. Cingular is one of the carriers that's worried about losing customers, and I can understand why. This is definately a case where they should try competing instead of going to court, but I guess they're desperate.
To me the most basic level is syntax and the ability to use that syntax to create a logical flow. It doesn't have to be pretty, but it has to be correct. Loop the correct number of times, run conditional portions when you actually mean to run them. I've worked with CS grads that couldn't do that. I fired a PhD CS grad who couldn't do that. And in this particular case, their PhD was from a reasonably good (at least top 50 or so), nationally known school. I'm going to stop now that I'm sufficiently off topic.
In any case, I've seen way too many CS majors, some with advanced degrees, that couldn't code their way out of a for loop to accept that a CS degree brings someone beyond the most basic level of programming skills.