What grammar checking tools have you found useful? (Currently using an old Win/XP SP3 system.)
I recall that there was a special checker in Google Wave that took into account the context of surrounding words when suggesting replacements. For example, if you typed "I have bean to the shops", while "bean" (the food) is spelt correctly, it is the wrong word in this context, and "been" would be suggested instead. Unfortunatly Google Wave was discontinued, so I don't know if this functionality is avaliable anywhere.
Why is 11pm followed by 12am, and then 1 through 11am, and then 12pm? Shouldn't 12pm follow 11pm? The only sensible way surely is to have 0am..11am and then 0pm..11pm. Can anyone explain why 12 comes before 1?
My guess would be that, for example at midnight it turns into a new day (so it AM). It would have to be 12 AM because a minute later it will be 12:01 AM. The alternatives would be for it to be midnight as 12PM and 12:01 AM a minute later (which is strange as it switches based on the minute not the hour), or to redefine midnight as 1AM (which again would be strange - the hour is supposed to be the number of hours past midday/midnight).
It is indeed single window, but it doesn't look like a standard gnome program. I was hoping for a little more.
Thanks for the screenshot. I was wondering what it looked like when I read the article. I am fairly used to using the current interface, but my first impression of the new one is that it looks quite decent, so hopefully won't have any complaints when it updates.
One person protesting there was interviewed and stated that news media would not care unless fuss would be created.
Right, because they tried peacefully protesting first, and that didn't work.</sarcasm>
Pretty much.
LONDON -- As political and social protests grip the Middle East, are growing in Europe and a riot exploded in north London this weekend, here's a sad truth, expressed by a Londoner when asked by a television reporter: Is rioting the correct way to express your discontent?
"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"
The TV reporter from Britain's ITV had no response. So the young man pressed his advantage. "Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you." Source: http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/07/7292281-the-sad-truth-behind-london-riot
There are a MILLION blogs on this one pair of websites? How many readers could they possibly have?
The ISP blocked the IP address for the website (as opposed to the specific website). However, the IP address is the same IP address as many other blogs that were blocked. The IP address would be for Google's Blogger server, which would host many blogs on one server (so one IP address)
Will turning them *off* first help prevent this from happening?
Someone elsewhere in this topic commented that that is what they thought was meant by "rebooted" - i.e. when plugged into a charger, the phone turned itself on if it was off. I don't know if that is the case here, but I have seen an old phone of mine do something similar when it was off and I plugged it in to charge.
Or, maybe, that's only if you want to be listed on the Android Market?
Pretty much. I found an open source Android app on the Android market that I wanted to add a feature to, so got the source to fork, added the feature (learning a little bit about android development at the same time), and compiled it so I could put it on my phone. After I done all that I thought it might be nice to put it on Google's Market, so paid the $25 and uploaded it there (ensuring I had a link to the source changes, of course).
I could have done all of that without paying the price at the end, and it would still be avaliable (to people who allow their phone to instal apps from non market sources) as I had uploaded the compiled app file alongside the code changes, and put it on a secondary Android Market (SlideMe I think it was, not the official Google one).
This is actually my experience. Many of my younger acquaintances won't leave a voicemail and expect you to always call back. How hard is it?
I've had voicemail turned off on my phone for years, originally from when I was a teenager and it cost me money (well, phone credit on pay as you go) to listen to the message, and of the messages I listened to before turning it off, most were just the inside of someones pocket.
If I'm calling someone, it is usually because I need to have a conversation with them, something that requires interaction with the person being called, that you don't get with a voicemail. If I call someone and they don't answer, I usually send them a text message to say why I called (but I'm from the UK where sending texts is commonplace as it doesn't cost anything to recieve them), and will often call back later if it is important enough. If I just wanted to give them a message without interaction I would just sent a text message (or email etc.) instead of calling them.
I remember a friend of mine changed his birthday on Facebook, sometime in March I think.
Come April 1st he had a lot of people wishing him happy birthday, and he had a good laugh (I was a little bemused as I remembered his birthday from a few months before, until I realsed what the date was)
One interesting thing to take from that is that there are people on Facebook who will just check whose birthdays Facebook is saying it is and send a message, regardless of if they have spoken to them at all recently (or since their last birthday message), and regardless of whether it is actually their birthday or not.
The only thing I'm worried about is the "Truth Game," which allows my "friends" to answer questions about me. I never "opted-in" to this system, but my "friends" are still allowed to comment on me without my permission. I reckon my "friends" aren't saying anything catastrophic, but I'd rather not participate at all. But thus far I have not found any way to opt-out. This is the sort of thing that makes me doubt the safety of Facebook.
Have you tried turning off platform apps (i.e. turn off all platform apps)? If you have it off, I believe that your friends applications will not have access to your name at all, so they will not be able to invite you to anything, or answer a question about you, as you will not appear in the list of friends that the application has access to (I think turning off platform apps prevents all applications from having any of your information - including your friends apps). I have them turned off, and do not remember having any question being answered about me (but have seen the type of app you are talking about on other friends walls).
Start shooting rioters and you'll end the riots right quick, it would be VERY different if there was popular support for the rioters or if they had an agenda.
Some did have an agenda (I doubt all did, however):
expressed by a Londoner when asked by a television reporter: Is rioting the correct way to express your discontent?
"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"
The TV reporter from Britain's ITV had no response. So the young man pressed his advantage. "Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."
2. Cameron and the cops like the idea of being able to completely cut off an area from communication with the outside world, thus preventing any pictures or other evidence of... let's call it unfortunate activities. (Read: we can break a few heads, withdraw, and say "there's no proof the police did any of this!")
Videos and photos still exist even if they are not uploaded to the internet instantly.
Relying on some closed source product provided by a big-name or no-name tech company? Good luck with that. That product might be discontinued tomorrow. This is why companies will often require source code for mission critical business apps, if not hands on access at least held in escrow, "just in case."
Its a good thing Google are planning on open sourcing it then.
Sound advice. However, I suspect the majority of rioters on the streets at the moment aren't the type of people who read Slashdot nor think about the consequences of showing their face in public to all those people with smartphones.
I heard one report that there was someone handing out scarves to people telling them to use it to cover their face. So while the majority might not be thinking of it, there are a few who are (and are sharing their knowledge)
Don't try to say that there is a reason for this. Marches/sit-ins/hunger-strikes are peaceful, noble forms of expression. Rioting is juvenile and only hurts your fellow citizens.
There was one interview that said the rioting was becuase when they tried a peaceful expression, it was ignored:
As political and social protests grip the Middle East, are growing in Europe and a riot exploded in north London this weekend, here's a sad truth, expressed by a Londoner when asked by a television reporter: Is rioting the correct way to express your discontent?
"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"
The TV reporter from Britain's ITV had no response. So the young man pressed his advantage. "Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."
"Disaffected urban youth" in England are toting around Blackberries? Thatâ(TM)s not very hip and edgy.
It is if you're youth here. Smartphone brand choice (released a few days ago). 37% of smartphone-owning 13-15 and 37% of 16-24s have a BlackBerry.
(My theory is they're either cast-offs from mum/dad, probably from business, or stolen. BlackBerry Messenger is popular, although I don't understand why, when things like MSN were popular before and work on all phones.)
BlackBerrys are just popular among teenagers in the UK. I know more people with one than I do with an Android phone (and they weren't second hand or stolen, but brought). BlackBerry Messanger is particuarly popular, probabaly becuase it is a free version of text messaging (in the UK, you don't get charged for recieving a text message, only sending it. Historically, lots of teenagers prefer texting to calling their friends, and the BBM is an upgrade of this - free and can be sent to groups apparently).
Actually - when riots occur - shut down the mobile phone networks and allow only emergency calls. That would be limiting the ability for people to communicate, but especially those that are roaming around rioting.
It would also limit the ability for people to communicate to their parents/children/significant others that they have not been killed/injured/robbed in the riots. These people would probably just call the police saying "I can't contact [person] and am worried they have been caught up in the riots"
I get the feeling that hardware errors were a lot more common back in the authors day; they don't come up very often now.
One of the first things I learnt when troubleshooting problems is that it is probably a problem with your code, and not the hardware or external software libraries (apart from rare cases).
One of those interviewed in the article complained about the fact that modern day programmers try to solve the problem through an IDE or debugger, instead of putting in statements which change the output of the program. They wanted printf debugging. While I do value a good tracing subsystem, I for one, am grateful for modern debuggers which let me view the state of the system without having to modify/redeploy the code.
Oooh, I remember printing out debug statements. When I was at Uni.
Tried doing it once while working on a massive program when I got a job after Uni, it was near useless due to the scale of the system. Figured out how to use a decent debugger properly (we might have been taught how to use a basic one at Uni) and haven't looked back.
Recently found out with the debugger I am using that I can change variable values mid execution - can't do that with print statements. You're right - modern debuggers are great.
Yeah, that was my first thought. I'm pretty long in the tooth myself, but for the most part, if something has been forgotten, it's because it is no longer of use.
Sure things come back (the mobile app market is a good example), and this becomes a great opportunity for the older generation to pass on information to the younger. But I'm not going to miss the days where you had to figure out how to handle your data set when you couldn't use more than 64k of consecutive memory.
Thing is, a lot of the stuff that was required knowledge and isn't now is probably unlikely to come up very often any more. So knowing it internally isn't as important as it can just be looked up for a one off use. Sure, maybe a basic overview understanding of some of the potential issues may be useful, but details of something that you might use once and not again that can be looked up isn't.
I think my phone has a bit over 200MB of memory, so any code optimisations for a computing device with less than that aren't as important as they would have been back when computers had less RAM (computers did have double digit RAM at some point, right? My history of computer hardware isn't that great)
As Google+ gets more popular, the stream will grow more and more inane. But, what's awesome, is G+ doesn't call people in your circles 'friends' so there isn't the emotional baggage associated with not being someone's friend. Moreover, you don't advertise your circles. You could add someone and then drop them and they would only see that you've added them. Moreover, they can add you without you adding them.
If you have someone in your circle and that person goes on your profile, it will tell them "X has you in one of their circles" or something like that. So if you add them then drop them, they will get a notification, but if they then go onto your profile after, they may be able to tell that you no longer have them in a circle. I don't know if this is stil true if you hide your circle information entirely though (there seems to be two options - either display a list of everyone in your circles, without saying who is in what circle or what circles you have - or not display who you have in any circle)
And it's pretty nice, too. It takes a screenshot and allows you to highlight what items you're talking about in your note.
Something I liked a lot about the "send feedback" in Google+ is not just the highlight, but the blackout capability. You can cover up personal information you don't want sent as part of the screenshot.
What is extra handy about this is that it seems to automatically distinguish blocks from each other so you don't have to drag a rectangle around some parts, you can just click it and it blacks out the whole box (try it by juck clicking on a profile photo for example). I think the same functionality works for highlighting things too, but I mainly use it for blackout.
Google also pushed an update for the app the same day it was released and it was approved in a couple hours. Much faster than the typical update approval.
Further up the discussion, people are saying that a previous app version was released onto the market by mistake for a few hours, and replaced with the proper version soon after.
Slashdot Mirror
What grammar checking tools have you found useful? (Currently using an old Win/XP SP3 system.)
I recall that there was a special checker in Google Wave that took into account the context of surrounding words when suggesting replacements. For example, if you typed "I have bean to the shops", while "bean" (the food) is spelt correctly, it is the wrong word in this context, and "been" would be suggested instead. Unfortunatly Google Wave was discontinued, so I don't know if this functionality is avaliable anywhere.
Why is 11pm followed by 12am, and then 1 through 11am, and then 12pm? Shouldn't 12pm follow 11pm? The only sensible way surely is to have 0am..11am and then 0pm..11pm. Can anyone explain why 12 comes before 1?
My guess would be that, for example at midnight it turns into a new day (so it AM). It would have to be 12 AM because a minute later it will be 12:01 AM. The alternatives would be for it to be midnight as 12PM and 12:01 AM a minute later (which is strange as it switches based on the minute not the hour), or to redefine midnight as 1AM (which again would be strange - the hour is supposed to be the number of hours past midday/midnight).
I don't think I've seen a Wal-Mart in the UK. Apologies that their protest wasn't the true scotsman you were looking for.
Here is a screenshot: http://cdn.omgubuntu.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Screen-Shot-2011-08-22-at-22.01.02.jpg
It is indeed single window, but it doesn't look like a standard gnome program. I was hoping for a little more.
Thanks for the screenshot. I was wondering what it looked like when I read the article. I am fairly used to using the current interface, but my first impression of the new one is that it looks quite decent, so hopefully won't have any complaints when it updates.
One person protesting there was interviewed and stated that news media would not care unless fuss would be created.
Right, because they tried peacefully protesting first, and that didn't work.</sarcasm>
Pretty much.
LONDON -- As political and social protests grip the Middle East, are growing in Europe and a riot exploded in north London this weekend, here's a sad truth, expressed by a Londoner when asked by a television reporter: Is rioting the correct way to express your discontent?
"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"
The TV reporter from Britain's ITV had no response. So the young man pressed his advantage. "Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."
Source: http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/07/7292281-the-sad-truth-behind-london-riot
There are a MILLION blogs on this one pair of websites? How many readers could they possibly have?
The ISP blocked the IP address for the website (as opposed to the specific website). However, the IP address is the same IP address as many other blogs that were blocked. The IP address would be for Google's Blogger server, which would host many blogs on one server (so one IP address)
Will turning them *off* first help prevent this from happening?
Someone elsewhere in this topic commented that that is what they thought was meant by "rebooted" - i.e. when plugged into a charger, the phone turned itself on if it was off. I don't know if that is the case here, but I have seen an old phone of mine do something similar when it was off and I plugged it in to charge.
>Developing for Android is also free.
Well, don't you have to pay $25?
Or, maybe, that's only if you want to be listed on the Android Market?
Pretty much. I found an open source Android app on the Android market that I wanted to add a feature to, so got the source to fork, added the feature (learning a little bit about android development at the same time), and compiled it so I could put it on my phone. After I done all that I thought it might be nice to put it on Google's Market, so paid the $25 and uploaded it there (ensuring I had a link to the source changes, of course).
I could have done all of that without paying the price at the end, and it would still be avaliable (to people who allow their phone to instal apps from non market sources) as I had uploaded the compiled app file alongside the code changes, and put it on a secondary Android Market (SlideMe I think it was, not the official Google one).
...haven't learned about voicemail.
This is actually my experience. Many of my younger acquaintances won't leave a voicemail and expect you to always call back. How hard is it?
I've had voicemail turned off on my phone for years, originally from when I was a teenager and it cost me money (well, phone credit on pay as you go) to listen to the message, and of the messages I listened to before turning it off, most were just the inside of someones pocket.
If I'm calling someone, it is usually because I need to have a conversation with them, something that requires interaction with the person being called, that you don't get with a voicemail. If I call someone and they don't answer, I usually send them a text message to say why I called (but I'm from the UK where sending texts is commonplace as it doesn't cost anything to recieve them), and will often call back later if it is important enough. If I just wanted to give them a message without interaction I would just sent a text message (or email etc.) instead of calling them.
I fear the sound of whoosh, but wouldn't that just be a turdy astroturfer?
If it is, I wouldn't want to be around that whoosh. Sounds unpleasant.
you could post a fake birthday :)
I remember a friend of mine changed his birthday on Facebook, sometime in March I think.
Come April 1st he had a lot of people wishing him happy birthday, and he had a good laugh (I was a little bemused as I remembered his birthday from a few months before, until I realsed what the date was)
One interesting thing to take from that is that there are people on Facebook who will just check whose birthdays Facebook is saying it is and send a message, regardless of if they have spoken to them at all recently (or since their last birthday message), and regardless of whether it is actually their birthday or not.
The only thing I'm worried about is the "Truth Game," which allows my "friends" to answer questions about me. I never "opted-in" to this system, but my "friends" are still allowed to comment on me without my permission. I reckon my "friends" aren't saying anything catastrophic, but I'd rather not participate at all. But thus far I have not found any way to opt-out. This is the sort of thing that makes me doubt the safety of Facebook.
Have you tried turning off platform apps (i.e. turn off all platform apps)? If you have it off, I believe that your friends applications will not have access to your name at all, so they will not be able to invite you to anything, or answer a question about you, as you will not appear in the list of friends that the application has access to (I think turning off platform apps prevents all applications from having any of your information - including your friends apps). I have them turned off, and do not remember having any question being answered about me (but have seen the type of app you are talking about on other friends walls).
Start shooting rioters and you'll end the riots right quick, it would be VERY different if there was popular support for the rioters or if they had an agenda.
Some did have an agenda (I doubt all did, however):
expressed by a Londoner when asked by a television reporter: Is rioting the correct way to express your discontent?
"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"
The TV reporter from Britain's ITV had no response. So the young man pressed his advantage. "Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."
Source: http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/07/7292281-the-sad-truth-behind-london-riot
Not saying that rioting was the correct way to go about it, but some of them seemed to think it was.
2. Cameron and the cops like the idea of being able to completely cut off an area from communication with the outside world, thus preventing any pictures or other evidence of... let's call it unfortunate activities. (Read: we can break a few heads, withdraw, and say "there's no proof the police did any of this!")
Videos and photos still exist even if they are not uploaded to the internet instantly.
Relying on some closed source product provided by a big-name or no-name tech company? Good luck with that. That product might be discontinued tomorrow. This is why companies will often require source code for mission critical business apps, if not hands on access at least held in escrow, "just in case."
Its a good thing Google are planning on open sourcing it then.
1. ski mask 2. ??? 3. profit!!
Sound advice. However, I suspect the majority of rioters on the streets at the moment aren't the type of people who read Slashdot nor think about the consequences of showing their face in public to all those people with smartphones.
I heard one report that there was someone handing out scarves to people telling them to use it to cover their face. So while the majority might not be thinking of it, there are a few who are (and are sharing their knowledge)
Don't try to say that there is a reason for this. Marches/sit-ins/hunger-strikes are peaceful, noble forms of expression. Rioting is juvenile and only hurts your fellow citizens.
There was one interview that said the rioting was becuase when they tried a peaceful expression, it was ignored:
As political and social protests grip the Middle East, are growing in Europe and a riot exploded in north London this weekend, here's a sad truth, expressed by a Londoner when asked by a television reporter: Is rioting the correct way to express your discontent?
"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"
The TV reporter from Britain's ITV had no response. So the young man pressed his advantage. "Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."
Source: http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/07/7292281-the-sad-truth-behind-london-riot
I'm not saying that the rioting is acceptable, nor that this is why everyone is doing so.
"Disaffected urban youth" in England are toting around Blackberries? Thatâ(TM)s not very hip and edgy.
It is if you're youth here. Smartphone brand choice (released a few days ago). 37% of smartphone-owning 13-15 and 37% of 16-24s have a BlackBerry.
(My theory is they're either cast-offs from mum/dad, probably from business, or stolen. BlackBerry Messenger is popular, although I don't understand why, when things like MSN were popular before and work on all phones.)
BlackBerrys are just popular among teenagers in the UK. I know more people with one than I do with an Android phone (and they weren't second hand or stolen, but brought). BlackBerry Messanger is particuarly popular, probabaly becuase it is a free version of text messaging (in the UK, you don't get charged for recieving a text message, only sending it. Historically, lots of teenagers prefer texting to calling their friends, and the BBM is an upgrade of this - free and can be sent to groups apparently).
Actually - when riots occur - shut down the mobile phone networks and allow only emergency calls. That would be limiting the ability for people to communicate, but especially those that are roaming around rioting.
It would also limit the ability for people to communicate to their parents/children/significant others that they have not been killed/injured/robbed in the riots. These people would probably just call the police saying "I can't contact [person] and am worried they have been caught up in the riots"
One of the first things I learnt when troubleshooting problems is that it is probably a problem with your code, and not the hardware or external software libraries (apart from rare cases).
One of those interviewed in the article complained about the fact that modern day programmers try to solve the problem through an IDE or debugger, instead of putting in statements which change the output of the program. They wanted printf debugging. While I do value a good tracing subsystem, I for one, am grateful for modern debuggers which let me view the state of the system without having to modify/redeploy the code.
Oooh, I remember printing out debug statements. When I was at Uni.
Tried doing it once while working on a massive program when I got a job after Uni, it was near useless due to the scale of the system. Figured out how to use a decent debugger properly (we might have been taught how to use a basic one at Uni) and haven't looked back.
Recently found out with the debugger I am using that I can change variable values mid execution - can't do that with print statements. You're right - modern debuggers are great.
Yeah, that was my first thought. I'm pretty long in the tooth myself, but for the most part, if something has been forgotten, it's because it is no longer of use.
Sure things come back (the mobile app market is a good example), and this becomes a great opportunity for the older generation to pass on information to the younger. But I'm not going to miss the days where you had to figure out how to handle your data set when you couldn't use more than 64k of consecutive memory.
Thing is, a lot of the stuff that was required knowledge and isn't now is probably unlikely to come up very often any more. So knowing it internally isn't as important as it can just be looked up for a one off use. Sure, maybe a basic overview understanding of some of the potential issues may be useful, but details of something that you might use once and not again that can be looked up isn't.
I think my phone has a bit over 200MB of memory, so any code optimisations for a computing device with less than that aren't as important as they would have been back when computers had less RAM (computers did have double digit RAM at some point, right? My history of computer hardware isn't that great)
As Google+ gets more popular, the stream will grow more and more inane. But, what's awesome, is G+ doesn't call people in your circles 'friends' so there isn't the emotional baggage associated with not being someone's friend. Moreover, you don't advertise your circles. You could add someone and then drop them and they would only see that you've added them. Moreover, they can add you without you adding them.
If you have someone in your circle and that person goes on your profile, it will tell them "X has you in one of their circles" or something like that. So if you add them then drop them, they will get a notification, but if they then go onto your profile after, they may be able to tell that you no longer have them in a circle. I don't know if this is stil true if you hide your circle information entirely though (there seems to be two options - either display a list of everyone in your circles, without saying who is in what circle or what circles you have - or not display who you have in any circle)
And it's pretty nice, too. It takes a screenshot and allows you to highlight what items you're talking about in your note.
Something I liked a lot about the "send feedback" in Google+ is not just the highlight, but the blackout capability. You can cover up personal information you don't want sent as part of the screenshot.
What is extra handy about this is that it seems to automatically distinguish blocks from each other so you don't have to drag a rectangle around some parts, you can just click it and it blacks out the whole box (try it by juck clicking on a profile photo for example). I think the same functionality works for highlighting things too, but I mainly use it for blackout.
Google also pushed an update for the app the same day it was released and it was approved in a couple hours. Much faster than the typical update approval.
Further up the discussion, people are saying that a previous app version was released onto the market by mistake for a few hours, and replaced with the proper version soon after.