As a CS student, I often wonder why are labs are all WIndows. Its a horrible OS to write software in, IMHO.
I was a CS student until last year. I think our system worked. Most public computer rooms for students were Windows and Mac; the Computer Lab itself dual boot linux (Red Hat, but you can't win 'em all) and Windows, most of the terminals were left in Linux, but you could easily reboot. Programming languages taught all had compilers etc for Win and Lin. Most of the internal docs were ps. In first year we learnt both OSs. It worked.
Publishers seem to think that because lots of people buy games at Christmas it means that lots of people will buy THEIR games. It's just not the case. However we're seeing more and more games released throughout the year, but with fairly bad sales - because there just isn't that impetus to buy, buy, buy! Releasing a fairly low-cost game around about the January sales might work, when people are actively hunting through the bargain bins, but a full price blockbuster without a "hook" to get the consumer buying it (and so MANY of these hooks are movie tie-ins, or sequels!) just isn't gonna cut it at christmas. I'm surprised that this is "news" -- but then previous years have seen a lot more innovation and a lot less reliance on piggybacking off big names and sequels, I guess.
well it's all about the business model; free Wifi is a good buzzword which means better press, in real money you get more customers staying longer (you stay at the rest stop twice as long.'. spend twice as much) and most importantly have an edge over the competition especially for business customers. free as in beer still makes people money, and costs virtually nothing to run.
For many of us on JANET it's a lot more than a mirror. Due to bandwidth charging by my institution if I have to use sources outside JANET then I end up having to pay for a lot of free software. Currently all my Linux installations are network installs from mirror.ac.uk and I have no qualms about updating software using source from mirror.ac.uk whenever I need to. Now I'll have to think *every* time I want to update something. That's not really very nice - and no other mirror has that property to me.
does SuSE 9.1 come with Centrino support built in? the latest Knoppix does, but I've installed SuSE 9.0 and am having a HELL of a time because the kernel is so old ipw2100 won't even think about running on it...
The OP is quite right - I'm in exactly the same boat and no, I don't need to learn C++ because I lied in an interview, or need to develop some software quickly, but rather because I am interviewing for an academic course that teaches C++ and one of the requirements is that you be able to learn C++ quickly, so the "pre-test" as it were is for me to try and learn it in the week I had between being notified I needed to learn it, and the interview itself. Meh. They suggest Deitel & Deitel; it's looking good for me so far. "C++ for Java Programmers" looks okayish, but not as thorough; I'm going for the learning-as-if-a-newbie approach and mapping concepts on to what I already know (thank gods for all those compiler theory lectures eh?).
Y'know what got me into the man command in a big way? Playing MUDs and learning to parse through steadily more complex help documentation as my character advanced and wanted to do more things. The docs in the MUDs I played were chatty, informative, helpful and most of all you could generally find out how to do what you wanted to do within the first page of help.
I've been thinking for a while (after teaching students some HCI at least) about a game-driven OS UI. Takes me back to usability testing at $BigSoftwareCompany and the way that subjects would treat the Director mockups as a game, see who could click on the right thing first, click anywhere and it won't break... but I think something commandline based that has the degree of thought put into it that a MUD has could be a great hit.
j
--
long sentences mean i haven't had enough coffee.
I wonder if I had taught my grandparents bash whether it would have helped them all that much. My grandmother has three main tasks she wants to do on the computer: scan in paintings, edit/print paintings, and send email. Certainly I don't see the commandline being much use for the first two (highly graphical) activities. Email, yes; though almost all her email is in HTML, and a lot of it is family email with photographs attached.
Yes, she would know more about how the computer works. And perhaps the commandline fits her method of working better -- she works in 'steps', writing down everything in the right order, and it would be a lot easier for her to remember the steps if they were commands rather than 'click on this' 'click on that'. But at the end of the day a huge knowledge of bash wouldn't help her touch up a spot of colour on her pictures without horrendous contortions... she doesn't really want to learn how it works, and that's fine by her and me (the 'local' -- only 100 miles away -- technical support).
Wow, what a well-researched and interesting article. Will we be seeing 'newbie conversation' mode with the limited commandset (as used in the article) splashing across the desktop soon? Unlikely, I think, but this article puts the whole thing in a new dimension for me.
I notice the author is multitalented -- he's also the genius behind Desktop Manager, a virtual desktops manager for Mac. Wow. If only I was single...
Slashdot Mirror
If that plasma ball line worked, there's hope for us all!
As a CS student, I often wonder why are labs are all WIndows. Its a horrible OS to write software in, IMHO. I was a CS student until last year. I think our system worked. Most public computer rooms for students were Windows and Mac; the Computer Lab itself dual boot linux (Red Hat, but you can't win 'em all) and Windows, most of the terminals were left in Linux, but you could easily reboot. Programming languages taught all had compilers etc for Win and Lin. Most of the internal docs were ps. In first year we learnt both OSs. It worked.
Publishers seem to think that because lots of people buy games at Christmas it means that lots of people will buy THEIR games. It's just not the case. However we're seeing more and more games released throughout the year, but with fairly bad sales - because there just isn't that impetus to buy, buy, buy! Releasing a fairly low-cost game around about the January sales might work, when people are actively hunting through the bargain bins, but a full price blockbuster without a "hook" to get the consumer buying it (and so MANY of these hooks are movie tie-ins, or sequels!) just isn't gonna cut it at christmas. I'm surprised that this is "news" -- but then previous years have seen a lot more innovation and a lot less reliance on piggybacking off big names and sequels, I guess.
well it's all about the business model; free Wifi is a good buzzword which means better press, in real money you get more customers staying longer (you stay at the rest stop twice as long .'. spend twice as much) and most importantly have an edge over the competition especially for business customers. free as in beer still makes people money, and costs virtually nothing to run.
at Cambridge we were all taught that EDSAC was the first real computer - because Cambridge invented it! Hardly a mention of anything else.
"which role wants Shatner play"
I'm having trouble parsing this bit, given the lack of any useful pronouns or prepositions. Could someone elaborate?
For many of us on JANET it's a lot more than a mirror. Due to bandwidth charging by my institution if I have to use sources outside JANET then I end up having to pay for a lot of free software. Currently all my Linux installations are network installs from mirror.ac.uk and I have no qualms about updating software using source from mirror.ac.uk whenever I need to. Now I'll have to think *every* time I want to update something. That's not really very nice - and no other mirror has that property to me.
does SuSE 9.1 come with Centrino support built in? the latest Knoppix does, but I've installed SuSE 9.0 and am having a HELL of a time because the kernel is so old ipw2100 won't even think about running on it...
The OP is quite right - I'm in exactly the same boat and no, I don't need to learn C++ because I lied in an interview, or need to develop some software quickly, but rather because I am interviewing for an academic course that teaches C++ and one of the requirements is that you be able to learn C++ quickly, so the "pre-test" as it were is for me to try and learn it in the week I had between being notified I needed to learn it, and the interview itself. Meh. They suggest Deitel & Deitel; it's looking good for me so far. "C++ for Java Programmers" looks okayish, but not as thorough; I'm going for the learning-as-if-a-newbie approach and mapping concepts on to what I already know (thank gods for all those compiler theory lectures eh?).
Hm.
;-)
genius, n.
[...]
A person who has an exceptionally high intelligence quotient, typically above 140.
amongst other meanings -- and don't get me started on quoting the OED
There is no one true way.
Y'know what got me into the man command in a big way? Playing MUDs and learning to parse through steadily more complex help documentation as my character advanced and wanted to do more things. The docs in the MUDs I played were chatty, informative, helpful and most of all you could generally find out how to do what you wanted to do within the first page of help.
I've been thinking for a while (after teaching students some HCI at least) about a game-driven OS UI. Takes me back to usability testing at $BigSoftwareCompany and the way that subjects would treat the Director mockups as a game, see who could click on the right thing first, click anywhere and it won't break... but I think something commandline based that has the degree of thought put into it that a MUD has could be a great hit.
j
--
long sentences mean i haven't had enough coffee.
I wonder if I had taught my grandparents bash whether it would have helped them all that much. My grandmother has three main tasks she wants to do on the computer: scan in paintings, edit/print paintings, and send email. Certainly I don't see the commandline being much use for the first two (highly graphical) activities. Email, yes; though almost all her email is in HTML, and a lot of it is family email with photographs attached.
Yes, she would know more about how the computer works. And perhaps the commandline fits her method of working better -- she works in 'steps', writing down everything in the right order, and it would be a lot easier for her to remember the steps if they were commands rather than 'click on this' 'click on that'. But at the end of the day a huge knowledge of bash wouldn't help her touch up a spot of colour on her pictures without horrendous contortions... she doesn't really want to learn how it works, and that's fine by her and me (the 'local' -- only 100 miles away -- technical support).
*snigger* It should be +5 (and a cup of tea) surely?
Wow, what a well-researched and interesting article. Will we be seeing 'newbie conversation' mode with the limited commandset (as used in the article) splashing across the desktop soon? Unlikely, I think, but this article puts the whole thing in a new dimension for me.
I notice the author is multitalented -- he's also the genius behind Desktop Manager, a virtual desktops manager for Mac. Wow. If only I was single...