Actually, a GPS is like a religion. Follow me here. If you put all your faith in the voice from the sky, it will see you home safely. As soon as you start to doubt and second guess it, to ask "is this really giving me the best route?" -- it stops working and you end up going the wrong way.
That's what I was thinking but it's now cool to be jaded on Slashdot. Acting like you're too old school to give a crap about anything used by the social networking folks is now hip.
The main difference, aside from syntax, between the old way of coding you've done and the new, is objects. You have to learn to think in terms of objects and object modeling. If you can't do that, no amount of rote syntactical education will help you.
I'm not really a big fan of Java for most things, but hands down the single best, most approachable, most relevant introduction to object oriented program is Kathy Sierra's book "Head First Java". It's one of the only textbook style programming books I've ever found readable enough to just sit down and go through in order.
Once you understand objects -- including inheritance, polymorphism, and so on -- then you're at a place where the specific languages vary mostly by the libraries available for them and their syntactical differences -- which are easily overcome. C# and Java are extremely similar so I'd start with one or the other. C++ is still the real deal, but both C# and Java let you work without having to manage memory so damn carefully.
Starting with Java over C# will, IMCO, give you a better feel for best-practices because the MS Visual Studio IDE tends to push you to draw your screens and dialog boxes first, then hide code behind events and buttons instead of starting with a functional object model and then using the UI tools to build an interface and call back into your real objects. C# will probably take you further in the employment market, but learning Java first will make you a better C# programmer.
Anyone with half a wit paying attention would have guessed this. I told my daughter that would happen when we spoke about it two days ago.
look:
The iPhone antenna doesn't work if you hand touches the side in some spots. The problem goes away if you have a case. The majority of people want a case anyway - there's a huge aftermarket for cases. Cases sell for around twenty bucks, but can be found for less than ten, and probably cost less than 3 to make. Fixing the phone itself would require a new body, and significant time per phone to replace them.
Apple can solve this problem by spending less than 10 dollars per phone by giving everyone with an iPhone a case. Hell, they should just contract with some of the third party vendors (belkin, griffen, whatever) and mail the iphone users a coupon. Problem solved.
If they've got time, they could make a specifically generic looking white case that does the job but still leaves customers wanting a fancy third party case so as not to piss off their third party ecosystem, but I doubt apple gives a crap about that group anyway.
Hello? Yes, this is technical support for gmail applications. Am I having talk with government of India? Yes. I understand that you are having difficulty with reading emails of your populations. Have you been plugging your monitor into the plug on the back of the computer? Excellent. I am so very sorry you are still having the problems. We are checking now your network cables......
It seems to me that's standard for the software industry. They don't even try to fix "all the known bugs" before ship. They ship operating systems and other big software systems with long lists of current known bugs that they plan to fix in production long after release. Many software companies charge for those updates.
Back before PC's became common, if you bought an appliance and it didn't work perfectly -- every time (no bs about powering off and back on to finish washing your laundry) -- it would be considered defective and the brand name would take a major hit.
The PC industry has made "bug fix" common on appliances of all kinds more common.
Well, technically you're right of course, but I don't think it makes the slightest difference to the point -- which is that local boycotts of BP stations or even a small block of nations boycotting BP shipments wouldn't really have the impact the parent post suggests.
The real leverage the US Congress has here is the threat of direct sanctions like revoking existing permits and/or denying new ones for activity within our boards are coastal waters.
I watched the decline happen with my father-in-law, and the days when he was totally lucid may have been the worst of all for him, because he could see his situation and understand the terrible things he'd said and felt in his less lucid days. The disease was a daily torture for the man, and I know that under a similar diagnosis and with the current state of medicine as it is, my own choice would be more sudden and immediate.
Oil is almost as fungible as any national currency -- more so than most. The nature of oil moving in the global market is such that unless a boycott is nearly universal in its application, there is virtually no penalty against the boycotted firm. The only place consumers can really have an impact would be at BP stations in their community, and in general that would only impact the local owners and operators, while the refinery simply sold their products to other retailers.
...kind of like what AMD did, only Intel has been better able to capitalize on it apparently.
I was the AMD stuff was more competitive, but in terms of performance for the work I'm doing, I have identically configured linux boxes and what should be the lower spec on the intel machine produces better results for me than the "on paper" higher spec AMD based one.
Ok, but the first time you have to slow down for someone making a turn, for a stop light or roundabout -- whatever, the "Average" speed drops precipitously.
Systems like this work better on paper than reality. To start, they're effective over fairly long distance open motorway routes. Most speeding isn't done over the entire distance. These systems would only catch people who quickly accelerate to a fairly high speed, hold that speed over long periods of time -- not not having to slow down for other motorists, construction, traffic, fuel, or road hazards. Drivers who are highly disciplined in their speeding habits and make significant effort to maintain the high pace.
The road trips I've been on in the UK and Europe (which are admittedly few) make these conditions over long periods of time seem remarkably unlikely for most people.
A large part of the performance gain in new generation processors is actually the combination of the processor and chipset. The core i5, core i7, etc. processors did away with a a separate memory controller -- that itself has been a huge power and speed advantage. Without upgrading the stuff supporting the chip, you don't get much benefit from an upgrade.
I do a fair bit of shell scripting, but your script-fu is better than mine. I've just printed your sample go over again later with my copy of Ken Burch's book in hand to make sure I understand every nuance. I don't think I've EVERY printed anything from/. before.
Linux Shell Scripting with Bash by Ken O. Burtch Sams Publishing
One of only two "computer" books I've ever been able to just sit down and read rather than just using as reference (the other being Kathy Sierra's "Head First Java" -- which is amazing).
Ken does a fantastic job at putting "just the right" level of background, detail, context, and and depth for someone new to shell scripting to get started, then to use the book as a reference for all the traditional tools (sed, awk, etc..).
I've bought two copies, one for me and one I gave to someone else who wanted to learn how to do this stuff.
Unfortunately for him, the never before tried personal hyperspace button on his wristwatch actually worked, though he hadn't counted on the potential issues of a having an x, y, and z axis to worry about in a gravity well.
I've driven recent model cars in both the US and Germany. When comparing things like fuel economy and performance, here's a short list of things people tend to forget:
Driving in the US means much more driving very long distances compared to Europe. So many of my European colleagues just don't grok this until I describe a few things. For example, an 8 hour drive from Phoenix to LA at 70+ miles per hour, then show them on a map how little of the US that actually covers. I do that, then ask them how far away they'd be if they drove for 8 hours from their house at that speed (as if it were possible).
Distances impact the relative "feel" of fuel costs. I live in a rural part of the country (as do 42% of McMericans). It's several miles drive for me to get to groceries. It can be a 45 minute commute at highway speeds just to get to work (not for me, but it's common enough). You just use a lot more fuel. This is also why public transportation is so much more difficult to make practical here. The distribution of population is radically different. Much of the US was settled after the advent of personal transportation that you didn't have to feed and water.
To my German friends -- don't feel bad about not quite fully understanding that sheer size and scope of the U.S. You aren't the first from Germany (well, technically Austria I suppose) to make that mistake. (poke).
P.S. - On the whole Automatic vs. Manual transmission thing -- I've certainly driven both. People claiming better turns on sweeping mountain roads and are driving front wheel drive cars are pretty much full of crap. Sure, a manual will give you a real edge with a rear wheel drive car. Otherwise, get over yourself and quit pretending your an F1 driver in your silly little consumer box.
When I drive in Europe, I make an effort to rent a small automatic. It costs more. Why? Because I don't know the roads well and my attention is full enough paying attention to the different road etiquette and the GPS combined with signs in different shapes than I'm used to and frequently in languages I don't speak.
My arms? Normal sized. I'm a 220 pound firefighter, so no the physical act of carrying it shouldn't be too bad. BUT, it doesn't fit comfortably in the palm the way the iPod Touch does. It feels like it would be easy to drop if using it with one hand and operating it with the other casually when you're not focused on that as the primary thing you're doing.
I don't see the gain in capability that makes up for the pain of carrying around something else that doesn't fit in your pocket.
When Microsoft released a tablet PC it was just a tablet with Windows and some trivial extensions.
Um...and when Apple released a tablet it was just an iPod touch with a bigger screen and some incremental os extensions (that also apply to the ipod). The thing is, at least to me, very impractical to even hold on to while using it. It's too big to be snug in one hand but it has no handle. If you set it down, you'll have to prop it up because it's got no kickstand. There's no usb for an optional mouse or keyboard. If you do use it as a touch screen when set down, the damn thing will rock back and forth because the back is rounded.
It's a really nice looking, stunningly pretty, very tactile version of the iPod touch -- but it misses so much of the benefit of the touch in terms of mobility that I just don't see it as anything you'll want to drag around with you.
I'm not sure what would work, only what I saw done. I will say that they were not just testing "joints" they tested every inch of that 75' ladder, finding the smallest little stress cracks you can imagine -- long before they had a chance to become safety issues.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, a GPS is like a religion. Follow me here. If you put all your faith in the voice from the sky, it will see you home safely. As soon as you start to doubt and second guess it, to ask "is this really giving me the best route?" -- it stops working and you end up going the wrong way.
Finally, I am ahead of a trend on the interwebs!
The main difference, aside from syntax, between the old way of coding you've done and the new, is objects. You have to learn to think in terms of objects and object modeling. If you can't do that, no amount of rote syntactical education will help you.
I'm not really a big fan of Java for most things, but hands down the single best, most approachable, most relevant introduction to object oriented program is Kathy Sierra's book "Head First Java". It's one of the only textbook style programming books I've ever found readable enough to just sit down and go through in order.
Once you understand objects -- including inheritance, polymorphism, and so on -- then you're at a place where the specific languages vary mostly by the libraries available for them and their syntactical differences -- which are easily overcome. C# and Java are extremely similar so I'd start with one or the other. C++ is still the real deal, but both C# and Java let you work without having to manage memory so damn carefully.
Starting with Java over C# will, IMCO, give you a better feel for best-practices because the MS Visual Studio IDE tends to push you to draw your screens and dialog boxes first, then hide code behind events and buttons instead of starting with a functional object model and then using the UI tools to build an interface and call back into your real objects. C# will probably take you further in the employment market, but learning Java first will make you a better C# programmer.
Anyone with half a wit paying attention would have guessed this. I told my daughter that would happen when we spoke about it two days ago.
look:
The iPhone antenna doesn't work if you hand touches the side in some spots.
The problem goes away if you have a case.
The majority of people want a case anyway - there's a huge aftermarket for cases.
Cases sell for around twenty bucks, but can be found for less than ten, and probably cost less than 3 to make.
Fixing the phone itself would require a new body, and significant time per phone to replace them.
Apple can solve this problem by spending less than 10 dollars per phone by giving everyone with an iPhone a case. Hell, they should just contract with some of the third party vendors (belkin, griffen, whatever) and mail the iphone users a coupon. Problem solved.
If they've got time, they could make a specifically generic looking white case that does the job but still leaves customers wanting a fancy third party case so as not to piss off their third party ecosystem, but I doubt apple gives a crap about that group anyway.
That's a great way to end up in jail, where you won't be needing that laptop.
Hello? Yes, this is technical support for gmail applications. Am I having talk with government of India?
Yes. I understand that you are having difficulty with reading emails of your populations.
Have you been plugging your monitor into the plug on the back of the computer?
Excellent. I am so very sorry you are still having the problems. We are checking now your network cables......
Etc....
If you want something fixed, you need to show how it negatively impacts FARMVILLE. That @#@$@% application is driving everything now.
It seems to me that's standard for the software industry. They don't even try to fix "all the known bugs" before ship. They ship operating systems and other big software systems with long lists of current known bugs that they plan to fix in production long after release. Many software companies charge for those updates.
Back before PC's became common, if you bought an appliance and it didn't work perfectly -- every time (no bs about powering off and back on to finish washing your laundry) -- it would be considered defective and the brand name would take a major hit.
The PC industry has made "bug fix" common on appliances of all kinds more common.
Did they teach entirely in Esperanto as well?
Naw, that would never happen. Remember, in Soviet Russia, the people warn the test process...
Well, technically you're right of course, but I don't think it makes the slightest difference to the point -- which is that local boycotts of BP stations or even a small block of nations boycotting BP shipments wouldn't really have the impact the parent post suggests.
The real leverage the US Congress has here is the threat of direct sanctions like revoking existing permits and/or denying new ones for activity within our boards are coastal waters.
I watched the decline happen with my father-in-law, and the days when he was totally lucid may have been the worst of all for him, because he could see his situation and understand the terrible things he'd said and felt in his less lucid days. The disease was a daily torture for the man, and I know that under a similar diagnosis and with the current state of medicine as it is, my own choice would be more sudden and immediate.
Oil is almost as fungible as any national currency -- more so than most. The nature of oil moving in the global market is such that unless a boycott is nearly universal in its application, there is virtually no penalty against the boycotted firm. The only place consumers can really have an impact would be at BP stations in their community, and in general that would only impact the local owners and operators, while the refinery simply sold their products to other retailers.
...kind of like what AMD did, only Intel has been better able to capitalize on it apparently.
I was the AMD stuff was more competitive, but in terms of performance for the work I'm doing, I have identically configured linux boxes and what should be the lower spec on the intel machine produces better results for me than the "on paper" higher spec AMD based one.
Ok, but the first time you have to slow down for someone making a turn, for a stop light or roundabout -- whatever, the "Average" speed drops precipitously.
Systems like this work better on paper than reality. To start, they're effective over fairly long distance open motorway routes. Most speeding isn't done over the entire distance. These systems would only catch people who quickly accelerate to a fairly high speed, hold that speed over long periods of time -- not not having to slow down for other motorists, construction, traffic, fuel, or road hazards. Drivers who are highly disciplined in their speeding habits and make significant effort to maintain the high pace.
The road trips I've been on in the UK and Europe (which are admittedly few) make these conditions over long periods of time seem remarkably unlikely for most people.
I once had a 77 Chevy Vega. Continental Drift could actually have had a significant percentage impact on overall speed.
A large part of the performance gain in new generation processors is actually the combination of the processor and chipset. The core i5, core i7, etc. processors did away with a a separate memory controller -- that itself has been a huge power and speed advantage. Without upgrading the stuff supporting the chip, you don't get much benefit from an upgrade.
I do a fair bit of shell scripting, but your script-fu is better than mine. I've just printed your sample go over again later with my copy of Ken Burch's book in hand to make sure I understand every nuance. I don't think I've EVERY printed anything from /. before.
Linux Shell Scripting with Bash
by Ken O. Burtch
Sams Publishing
One of only two "computer" books I've ever been able to just sit down and read rather than just using as reference (the other being Kathy Sierra's "Head First Java" -- which is amazing).
Ken does a fantastic job at putting "just the right" level of background, detail, context, and and depth for someone new to shell scripting to get started, then to use the book as a reference for all the traditional tools (sed, awk, etc..).
I've bought two copies, one for me and one I gave to someone else who wanted to learn how to do this stuff.
Unfortunately for him, the never before tried personal hyperspace button on his wristwatch actually worked, though he hadn't counted on the potential issues of a having an x, y, and z axis to worry about in a gravity well.
Doh!
I've driven recent model cars in both the US and Germany. When comparing things like fuel economy and performance, here's a short list of things people tend to forget:
Driving in the US means much more driving very long distances compared to Europe. So many of my European colleagues just don't grok this until I describe a few things. For example, an 8 hour drive from Phoenix to LA at 70+ miles per hour, then show them on a map how little of the US that actually covers. I do that, then ask them how far away they'd be if they drove for 8 hours from their house at that speed (as if it were possible).
Distances impact the relative "feel" of fuel costs. I live in a rural part of the country (as do 42% of McMericans). It's several miles drive for me to get to groceries. It can be a 45 minute commute at highway speeds just to get to work (not for me, but it's common enough). You just use a lot more fuel. This is also why public transportation is so much more difficult to make practical here. The distribution of population is radically different. Much of the US was settled after the advent of personal transportation that you didn't have to feed and water.
To my German friends -- don't feel bad about not quite fully understanding that sheer size and scope of the U.S. You aren't the first from Germany (well, technically Austria I suppose) to make that mistake. (poke).
P.S. - On the whole Automatic vs. Manual transmission thing -- I've certainly driven both. People claiming better turns on sweeping mountain roads and are driving front wheel drive cars are pretty much full of crap. Sure, a manual will give you a real edge with a rear wheel drive car. Otherwise, get over yourself and quit pretending your an F1 driver in your silly little consumer box.
When I drive in Europe, I make an effort to rent a small automatic. It costs more. Why? Because I don't know the roads well and my attention is full enough paying attention to the different road etiquette and the GPS combined with signs in different shapes than I'm used to and frequently in languages I don't speak.
My arms? Normal sized. I'm a 220 pound firefighter, so no the physical act of carrying it shouldn't be too bad. BUT, it doesn't fit comfortably in the palm the way the iPod Touch does. It feels like it would be easy to drop if using it with one hand and operating it with the other casually when you're not focused on that as the primary thing you're doing.
I don't see the gain in capability that makes up for the pain of carrying around something else that doesn't fit in your pocket.
Um...and when Apple released a tablet it was just an iPod touch with a bigger screen and some incremental os extensions (that also apply to the ipod). The thing is, at least to me, very impractical to even hold on to while using it. It's too big to be snug in one hand but it has no handle. If you set it down, you'll have to prop it up because it's got no kickstand. There's no usb for an optional mouse or keyboard. If you do use it as a touch screen when set down, the damn thing will rock back and forth because the back is rounded.
It's a really nice looking, stunningly pretty, very tactile version of the iPod touch -- but it misses so much of the benefit of the touch in terms of mobility that I just don't see it as anything you'll want to drag around with you.
I'm not sure what would work, only what I saw done. I will say that they were not just testing "joints" they tested every inch of that 75' ladder, finding the smallest little stress cracks you can imagine -- long before they had a chance to become safety issues.