code that looks good? Listen, I don't give a shit what my code "looks like" or if it impresses someone. I write in VB 'cause it just works and I could care less what the C++ gods say. What matters is what does your code accomplish? A computer, a programming language, an OS, a databse is just a tool, a means to an end, not an end to itself. I've written code that runs multi-million dollar manufacturing lines, automatically reporting production based off bar scans on the line, keeping data in 12 different databases in sync with transactions, automattically flowing stuff into an ancient accounting system. It works. It's a hack and a half because it was based on code half done and crappy access databases but the client wouldn't pay to have it done "right", they just wanted it done. To paraphrase Robert M. Pirsig, it has high quality because it works, not because of the materials/tools used to assemble it. ---
Becuase I can DIRECTLY make a living at writing closed source software. I can't write opensource here and make money. I suppose I could do it in my "spare" time, but I prefer to spend it with my wife and son. If I have time left over, I will study to learn some new skill which will make me more money when I take my next job. Or certification.
I guess I'm just a selfish bastard, huh? I spent five years being an "idealistic" reporter making jackshit. I give to charities like NPR and the like when I feel like being idealistic, not write code, sorry. ---
Did 3d Monster Maze have any sort of animation? My thinking is, Dungeon Master had a few frames per second of animation and was first-person based (you could see your sword etc.?? On another note: Hunt the Wumpus.... man, that'll take ya back. I recall playing a cheezy takeoff called "Wampus Hunt", IIRC, on the old TI-99/4A ---
Since Jon catches so much grief here I just want to say that I recently checked out Geeks from the local library and was really impressed. Nice writing, and the book really moved me. Took it back to the library and told the librarian "You need to order more than one copy of this, 'cause its really good and some kid's gonna steal this one." ---
Heck, for that matter, wasn't Dungeon Master on the Atari ST pre-Wolfenstein? This was like 1988? I'm not up on my id history, so I don't know when it came out. dungeon Master, btw, was a first-person dungeon game similiar to the Catacombs 3d mentioned above. Damn fun game btw, with some fiendish puzzles. ---
"Software evolution is a controversial theory holding the unproven belief that random, undirected forces produced a world of better software. Use at your own risk."
Yes, they were really gonna put this in the books here. Fortunately, it was thrown out. ---
We're confusing 2 things here: brand of the product and brand of WHO you buy it from. I don't think the latter will be that important in the 'net space and is being tremendously overvalued. ---
most will be like me, because most of the process I do manually will be automated into sites like MySimon. Those will be the powerful brands. That's why I don't think the portals like Yahoo! are overvalued. Those are the valuable brands, not individual sellers, even big ones like amazon. ---
Are we beginning to see the (finally!) ridiculous valuation of all these $&#*(! net stocks? I mean, I think the net is a pretty big deal, too, but geez!
Why have all these companies like Amazon been valued so high? because they are building brand awareness? I think that's a bunch of crap. I just don't see brand being as important 5 years from now. The Internet is diluting brand. I don't give a crap about brand when I go to buy a book. I care about price, which is why I go to cheapbooks and let it find the best price for me.
See, how important is brand when your brand can be co-opted. All the "branding, marketing" stuff on your site can be bypassed by an index site (like cheapbooks). Or by Pricewatch. or whatever. Who gives a crap about brand when I can get good, hard data on what that thingee really does? I happen to like the Wrox press computer books, but do I seek 'em out? No. I read user reviews on Amazon/B&N/Fatbrain, find the book I want, then fire it into cheapbooks.
anyway, Rant off, but I think the tech stocks were ridiculously overvalued and them falling is good. That being said, there is SO much money pouring into the market these days as everyone pumps money into mutual funds, that the market will rebound. Because the money will keep flowing in. What are you gonna do? Buy bonds? ---
>In an about-face, Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), >chairman of the House Republican Conference and >the No. 4 person in House GOP leadership, moved >from criticizing the Justice Department's >victory as a crushing blow to the "new economy" >to commending the Justice Department's win in >federal court.
As most folks from around here know, J.C. is no stranger to about faces. This is, after all, the man who pledged to only serve two terms and now says "I don't recall if I ever said that or not." :) ---
My graphics experience is a couple of years old. (I'm no longer a GA). I was talking Corel 7 days. I know we had a manager who did some stuff in corel ('cause he was a PC dude and that was what PC dudes used, because God forbid he used the best tool for the job, a mac). Anyway, we had HELL getting that stuff out. Went to four different service bureaus and paid a fortune before it was all said and done. Yes, I have used Corel. It's not bad software at all, but It's PS output was shit. Maybe it's better in 9, but I just called a service bureau here and they STILL charge more to output a Corel file than a PageMaker or Quark file. ---
WOW! lets folks who know something about graphics answer the questions. 72 dpi is critical because it is the standard. Postscript is important because it is the standard. Everything uses postscript. The problem is, there is postscript output, and then there is sh*tty postscript. CorelDraw is the latter, for instance, which is why service bureaus will charge you more. Your postscript may be fine on your desktop printer but chokes when it runs at 2450 dpi imagesetter. ---
Gimmie a break. I guarantee you, at the last company I was at (600+) I was the only person who knew what the hell GREP was (although the funny thing is, b/c your Mac comment, it was unsing grep in BBedit on the Mac) ---
If the Open Source Community is relying on people's good feeling and giving back, they're screwed. I'm sorry, but there are a lot of people who don't give a crap and will screw you to the wall, GPL or no GPL. ---
This is always been my fundamental question about open source. I guess I just don't GET IT. I've read all the stuff, but I don't see what the $ advantage would be to me open sourcing a program I wrote. ---
Please! are you serious? I think the differences only get greater. We had a joke at my last place of employment: "It's all about the shoes and the car." If you had 'em, it didn't matter what you actually DID for the company. Put it this way (I'm assuming you've read the Hitchhiker's Guide series -- see, I'm stereotyping!) who do you think would be on the "B" ark? I think it was B, you know there was one that had all the scientists and thinkers, one that had all the laborers, etc and one that had everyone else. -- the joke was the third one was the only one that was sent:) ---
Thanks for filling me in on what MTBF means. I mean, I'm a WINDOWS person. There's NO WAY I could know what that means. That's what I meant about Physical deteriation of disk drives. ps: I realize the needs for backups. I was just being a smart-ass! ---
Re:parallel layers of gas? try concentric
on
On The Sun's Layers
·
· Score: 2
Ummmm, OK, I have to rise to the defense of reporters here. I was one for several years. Because the reporter said "parallel" doesn't mean they don't know it should be concentric. As a reporter, your objective is to write something that the majority of people will understand -- Particulary with science reporting. Most people will understand what the reporter means by "parallel" but don't have a clue what concentric means. On a completely unrelated note, I didn't realize until now that there were stories that appeared on the sub-sections of/. without getting on the main page. I saw my submission had been accepted, but couldn't find it. I like the science stuff the best, so I'll start checking this out. ---
Maybe I was on crack, but didn't I read that Jackson made Microsoft conceeding to the Finding of Fact a requirement of any settlement and that was what Microsoft balked at? ---
Slashdot Mirror
code that looks good? Listen, I don't give a shit what my code "looks like" or if it impresses someone. I write in VB 'cause it just works and I could care less what the C++ gods say. What matters is what does your code accomplish? A computer, a programming language, an OS, a databse is just a tool, a means to an end, not an end to itself. I've written code that runs multi-million dollar manufacturing lines, automatically reporting production based off bar scans on the line, keeping data in 12 different databases in sync with transactions, automattically flowing stuff into an ancient accounting system. It works. It's a hack and a half because it was based on code half done and crappy access databases but the client wouldn't pay to have it done "right", they just wanted it done. To paraphrase Robert M. Pirsig, it has high quality because it works, not because of the materials/tools used to assemble it.
---
why NOT opensource?
Becuase I can DIRECTLY make a living at writing closed source software. I can't write opensource here and make money. I suppose I could do it in my "spare" time, but I prefer to spend it with my wife and son. If I have time left over, I will study to learn some new skill which will make me more money when I take my next job. Or certification.
I guess I'm just a selfish bastard, huh? I spent five years being an "idealistic" reporter making jackshit. I give to charities like NPR and the like when I feel like being idealistic, not write code, sorry.
---
Did 3d Monster Maze have any sort of animation? My thinking is, Dungeon Master had a few frames per second of animation and was first-person based (you could see your sword etc.?? On another note: Hunt the Wumpus.... man, that'll take ya back. I recall playing a cheezy takeoff called "Wampus Hunt", IIRC, on the old TI-99/4A
---
Since Jon catches so much grief here I just want to say that I recently checked out Geeks from the local library and was really impressed. Nice writing, and the book really moved me. Took it back to the library and told the librarian "You need to order more than one copy of this, 'cause its really good and some kid's gonna steal this one."
---
Heck, for that matter, wasn't Dungeon Master on the Atari ST pre-Wolfenstein? This was like 1988? I'm not up on my id history, so I don't know when it came out. dungeon Master, btw, was a first-person dungeon game similiar to the Catacombs 3d mentioned above. Damn fun game btw, with some fiendish puzzles.
---
"Software evolution is a controversial theory holding the unproven belief that random, undirected forces produced a world of better software. Use at your own risk."
Yes, they were really gonna put this in the books here. Fortunately, it was thrown out.---
We're confusing 2 things here: brand of the product and brand of WHO you buy it from. I don't think the latter will be that important in the 'net space and is being tremendously overvalued.
---
most will be like me, because most of the process I do manually will be automated into sites like MySimon. Those will be the powerful brands. That's why I don't think the portals like Yahoo! are overvalued. Those are the valuable brands, not individual sellers, even big ones like amazon.
---
Are we beginning to see the (finally!) ridiculous valuation of all these $&#*(! net stocks? I mean, I think the net is a pretty big deal, too, but geez!
Why have all these companies like Amazon been valued so high? because they are building brand awareness? I think that's a bunch of crap. I just don't see brand being as important 5 years from now. The Internet is diluting brand. I don't give a crap about brand when I go to buy a book. I care about price, which is why I go to cheapbooks and let it find the best price for me.
See, how important is brand when your brand can be co-opted. All the "branding, marketing" stuff on your site can be bypassed by an index site (like cheapbooks). Or by Pricewatch. or whatever. Who gives a crap about brand when I can get good, hard data on what that thingee really does? I happen to like the Wrox press computer books, but do I seek 'em out? No. I read user reviews on Amazon/B&N/Fatbrain, find the book I want, then fire it into cheapbooks.
anyway, Rant off, but I think the tech stocks were ridiculously overvalued and them falling is good. That being said, there is SO much money pouring into the market these days as everyone pumps money into mutual funds, that the market will rebound. Because the money will keep flowing in. What are you gonna do? Buy bonds?
---
ROTFFL! I really, really wish I hadn't blown my last moderator point today.
---
>In an about-face, Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), >chairman of the House Republican Conference and >the No. 4 person in House GOP leadership, moved >from criticizing the Justice Department's >victory as a crushing blow to the "new economy" >to commending the Justice Department's win in >federal court.
As most folks from around here know, J.C. is no stranger to about faces. This is, after all, the man who pledged to only serve two terms and now says "I don't recall if I ever said that or not."
:)
---
My graphics experience is a couple of years old. (I'm no longer a GA). I was talking Corel 7 days. I know we had a manager who did some stuff in corel ('cause he was a PC dude and that was what PC dudes used, because God forbid he used the best tool for the job, a mac). Anyway, we had HELL getting that stuff out. Went to four different service bureaus and paid a fortune before it was all said and done. Yes, I have used Corel. It's not bad software at all, but It's PS output was shit. Maybe it's better in 9, but I just called a service bureau here and they STILL charge more to output a Corel file than a PageMaker or Quark file.
---
WOW! lets folks who know something about graphics answer the questions. 72 dpi is critical because it is the standard. Postscript is important because it is the standard. Everything uses postscript. The problem is, there is postscript output, and then there is sh*tty postscript. CorelDraw is the latter, for instance, which is why service bureaus will charge you more. Your postscript may be fine on your desktop printer but chokes when it runs at 2450 dpi imagesetter.
---
Where am I gonna get that kind of power Tom?!
---
Gimmie a break. I guarantee you, at the last company I was at (600+) I was the only person who knew what the hell GREP was (although the funny thing is, b/c your Mac comment, it was unsing grep in BBedit on the Mac)
---
Hey moderator? How about a clue. If I mark it OT in the subject line, you don't have to moderate it OT! GEez.
---
If the Open Source Community is relying on people's good feeling and giving back, they're screwed. I'm sorry, but there are a lot of people who don't give a crap and will screw you to the wall, GPL or no GPL.
---
This is always been my fundamental question about open source. I guess I just don't GET IT. I've read all the stuff, but I don't see what the $ advantage would be to me open sourcing a program I wrote.
---
Unmmmm, happens to me quite often when I fail to take the "party line"
---
A friend of mine has a T-shift with that on it in big, bold letters (Not the "help", just "STOP PLATE TECTONICS!"
He got it as a present and has no idea where it was purchased. Anyone know?
---
Please! are you serious? I think the differences only get greater. We had a joke at my last place of employment: "It's all about the shoes and the car." If you had 'em, it didn't matter what you actually DID for the company. Put it this way (I'm assuming you've read the Hitchhiker's Guide series -- see, I'm stereotyping!) who do you think would be on the "B" ark? I think it was B, you know there was one that had all the scientists and thinkers, one that had all the laborers, etc and one that had everyone else. -- the joke was the third one was the only one that was sent :)
---
Thanks for filling me in on what MTBF means. I mean, I'm a WINDOWS person. There's NO WAY I could know what that means. That's what I meant about Physical deteriation of disk drives. ps: I realize the needs for backups. I was just being a smart-ass!
---
Ummmm, OK, I have to rise to the defense of reporters here. I was one for several years. Because the reporter said "parallel" doesn't mean they don't know it should be concentric. As a reporter, your objective is to write something that the majority of people will understand -- Particulary with science reporting. Most people will understand what the reporter means by "parallel" but don't have a clue what concentric means. On a completely unrelated note, I didn't realize until now that there were stories that appeared on the sub-sections of /. without getting on the main page. I saw my submission had been accepted, but couldn't find it. I like the science stuff the best, so I'll start checking this out.
---
Why would you need a backup? I thought *nix's never crashed.... Oh, well, I guess the physical deteriation of disk drives :)
---
Maybe I was on crack, but didn't I read that Jackson made Microsoft conceeding to the Finding of Fact a requirement of any settlement and that was what Microsoft balked at?
---