Two years ago my wife and I were en route from Seattle (where we live) to the Midwest to spend Christmas with family.
A very obviously drunk man boarded the plane with us and was sitting about 3-4 rows in front of us. He was very loud and belligerent to the flight attendants and to the other passengers in general for maybe an hour. Then he threw an absolute fit and started screaming and threatening the flight attendant. The reason? She refused to serve him his *fifth* beer!!
With the help of two other passengers he was 'escorted' to the rear where he was locked in a head for the duration of the flight.
And now JCR suggests that this person should've 'been packin'
CNN is reporting that the White House has denied any US involvement in the Kabul bombings and that its likely part of the ongoing civil war in Afghanistan.
I think its fair to say that we (meaning the U.S.) have been very fortunate to have been spared for so long from this sort of terrorist attack.
Maybe some good can come out of this tragedy: I hope that Bush and the rest of the current administration get it through their thick heads that billion dollar strike fighter programs and missile defense systems mean about as much in the 21st century as black powder musket production would've meant at the beginning of the 20th century.
Hijackings, biological and chemical attacks, and yes, even net warfare are the new weapons of mass destruction. We will ignore them at our own peril.
I personally am mildly disgusted by some of the mainstream media coverage I've seen of the aftermath. I really hate when obnoxious camera crews stick cameras in the faces of obviously traumatized survivors and ask inane questions like 'were you scared?', 'did you see anyone die?', or 'does this make you angry?'
Sheesh, I wish the media would a) let these people have some dignity, and b) quit asking so many stupid Sally Jessy-esque questions.
Apple's Dylan IDE was the only IDE that I've ever used that was both quantitatively and qualitatively better than other IDEs or command line tools. Qualitative because of the amazingly unique features and quantitative because of the immense boost to productivity.
Dylan stored all of your source code in a database and had this completely trippy multipane editor to work in. Grab the pane splitter control on any pane and split one pane into 2. Panes could contain views of a number of different types of data in the database - classes, methods, data members, call graphs, etc. etc. (I think there were about 15 or 16 different pane types) - and any pane could be hooked up to another so that one became the input to the next, i.e. hook a class pane up to a method pane, and hook that up to a source code pane and you get the classic SmallTalk browser. Add and delete panes to your hearts desire and the whole thing becomes nearly infinitely customizable.
Debugging was done in the context of the IDE - set a breakpoint in any of the panes and when the program hits a breakpoint you can edit the source code and recompile on the fly - while the program was running. Essentially you could work for hours and only ever launch the program once if you wanted to.
All other developer tools that I've ever used seem like stone age tools compared to what you could do in that thing..
The sad thing is except for the recompile on the fly thing you could do any of the above with C++ or any other language. Yet we're still stuck with source code stored in clumsy files and the tired edit-compile-debug cycle.
The point is that, given that Linux is already reasonably popular, you would think that some (maybe not all, but some) system vendors would offer dual boot on some of their configs. I mean, why not?
The only explanation for why vendors (like IBM) that sell Linux only, and Windows only systems don't also sell Win/Lin dual boot configs is because there's some licensing prohibition. A.K.A. anticompetitive behavior
It's interesting that he casts.NET as an M$ strategy to compete with AOL. I hadn't thought of that before, but it makes sense now. I think the reason I hadn't seen that is because I've never used AOL. Ever. I've seen it being used over the shoulder of a couple different people, but for the past 11 years I've used what he describes as the plain old Internet.
I plan to continue that course: I'll avoid.NET just like I avoid AOL.
I imagine it's going to be difficult to avoid without completely avoiding XP and future M$ OSes; I currently have 3 machines, a Mac, a Linux x86 box, and a Win98 box (mostly for gaming). I think Apple and the Powers That Be in the Linux world need to get the word out that if you value personal privacy and want to see an Internet in the future that isn't locked up by M$ (and M$'s henchmen), then people should consider using an alternative OS.
You can use the indexed digit of Pi both as the random value and also as the next index into Pi. You'd probably want (at least) 32 bit indexes each time.
Start it off with a seed of your own devising (current date/time stamp for instance).
Thats not much different from most other software pseudo rngs.
A good buyer's agent will catch things you wouldn't even think of, and take care of all the details that you don't want to. There are dozens of forms that (by law) have to be filled out for a real estate transaction.
Do your initial searching on line if you like, but be sure and get a pro to close the deal. Theres too much money on the line to take that kind of risk.
About 10% of the population is left handed and would have a difficult time adapting to this thing. Even now after years of computer use I can't control a mouse pointer with my right hand with even a modicum of accuracy (I end up going up and left if I'm trying to go left, and down and right if I'm trying to go right.. drives me bonkers until I switch the mouse.)
Someone needs to perfect the eye tracking thing. A cross-hair cursor that tracks your eye and "mouse" buttons on the keyboad might actually work. Other than that the mouse is probably the best input device we're gonna get for windowing GUIs. (focus follows cursor style X11 desktops would probably suck for this though)
I see people posting that pervasive wireless net access isn't necessary, that they wouldn't use it, that existing laptops, cells, pdas, etc. are sufficient for their needs. These people sound like the people in the 70s that thought PCs weren't necessary because mainframes were perfectly capable of handling all their computing needs. What you aren't getting is that new uses, new applications could become possible that aren't possible (or practical) today. All the things you do with computers today evolved in their environments and are best suited to those environments. Of course those things could be cumbersome/impractical in some other environment. But new ways of doing things will evolve in that other environment that may be better than the old ways.
It depends on your definition of 'online' of course, but the first computer games ran on mainframes, which one accessed through terminals which by definition are remote. Many of the earliest games were multiplayer. If you take the narrow view that online = Internet as so many do today, then I guess thats not true.
Of course, arcade games were never online because they were played (duh) in arcades, which are inherently destination oriented (you *go* to the arcade to play). Still, to say online gaming didnt exist is not exactly true.
Thats why I support a comprehensive ammunition control law rather than a gun control law. Think about it, ammunition is expendable and perishable. Within months of taking bullets and gun powder off the shelves no one would be shooting anything with all those shiny guns.
What I don't understand, is why companies don't sell decent computers that are low powered and quiet for web surfing.
I thought thats what iMacs and GV Cubes were. Being fan-less, they are amazingly quiet. An iMac won't set your pocketbook back by too much (although its a bit more than the assemble-it-yourself screwdriver set thinks it should be - but then those guys can't build a fan-less, dependable box either)
Sitting in front of a fan-less machine with a flat-panel display has a certain qualitative difference to it that is hard to describe to people that buy.3 dot-pitch el-cheapo monitors and commodity motherboards and cases.
Gibson has always sought profoundness where there wasn't much (or any).
Techno-shock happens all the time, in many small ways. How many senior citizens in our country are cut off from the cultural upheaval that is the Internet?
Techno-shock on a society-wide scale also is not that rare or even unusual, when viewed in the full scope of history. Most of the Middle-East went through a similar upheaval in the 20th century, caused by the rise in prominence of oil as a major natural resource. Of course, fundamentalism and xenophobia were the result there, but the transformation was at least as traumatic as Japan's and perhaps more so.
In post war Japan citizens were flogged to consume the products of Japanese industry. The electronics industry was identified early on as an area that Japanese wanted to become proficient at. This consumerism conditioning has a lot more to do with the Japanese' current preoccupation with buying lots of seemingly useless gadgets. (In fact, post war excesses in all of the combatant nations have led to many facts of life that are taken for granted in those societies - e.g. suburbanization of U.S. cities)
If Gibson wants to impress us with his "deep thinking" hes going to have to come up with something better than school girls sending text pages to each other. (my 15 year old sister might find it odd that he thinks that only happens in Japan - she carries around one of those iMac colored Nokias)
On a slightly more pedantic note, I found Gibsons numerous mis-spellings and the stupid 2 inch column layout to be extremely annoying for someone who is a published author.
ESPECIALLY if, like apple, you then just use it to run one monster server daemon
I suppose you're talking about the BSD layer.
Most users, however, are far more concerned about running Classic, Carbon, or Cocoa apps. Classic is a Mach process inside of which each Classic app is executed. Carbon and Cocoa apps are each individually Mach processes. So are system servers like the window server, pasteboard server, etc.
maybe a little off topic, but did anyone else get slightly annoyed by the condescending attitude towards the scientists and "eggheads" while the glass-blower was made out to be an artist and "maveric" etc. etc? Stupid mainstream media.. *grumbles*
No. I'm talking about the bugs you don't even know about. The tools/runtime environment of a single platform may not manifest them right out.
Lots (and lots, unfortunately) of products ship a dot-oh version that must immediately be patched because unknown bugs turned up. In my experience cross-platform code will ship with fewer unknown bugs because the different runtime environments provide more stress on the code.
Just my 2 cents, YMMV, maybe you know something special that I don't.
There are of course, other benefits to multi-platform coding than market numbers. Cross platform code often has fewer bugs because the different run-time environments of the different platforms it runs on often flush out bugs that would've otherwise squeaked by on just the primary platform.
The question about SDL is whether it is as stable and high-performance on those other platforms as it is on Linux. Loki's experiences don't tell us anything at all about how well SDL performs on, say, MacOS.
Firewire is supposed to solve this in the consumer market by vastly over-provisioning bandwidth, but there is only so far that approach scales.
FireWire is about a lot more than overprovisioning bandwidth. For instance it has an isochronous mode so that 2 devices on a FireWire bus can get a guaranteed slice of the bandwidth. Theres a lot more to FireWire that you should check into if you want to sound semi-informed.
Slashdot Mirror
Two years ago my wife and I were en route from Seattle (where we live) to the Midwest to spend Christmas with family.
A very obviously drunk man boarded the plane with us and was sitting about 3-4 rows in front of us. He was very loud and belligerent to the flight attendants and to the other passengers in general for maybe an hour. Then he threw an absolute fit and started screaming and threatening the flight attendant. The reason? She refused to serve him his *fifth* beer!!
With the help of two other passengers he was 'escorted' to the rear where he was locked in a head for the duration of the flight.
And now JCR suggests that this person should've 'been packin'
Great, I feel safer already.
> Net warfare? You can't conduct an act of war without physical access to the victim.
Oh really? Know any air traffic control centers that use computers? That's but one example.
Extract your head from your posterior aozilla.
CNN is reporting that the White House has denied any US involvement in the Kabul bombings and that its likely part of the ongoing civil war in Afghanistan.
I think its fair to say that we (meaning the U.S.) have been very fortunate to have been spared for so long from this sort of terrorist attack.
Maybe some good can come out of this tragedy: I hope that Bush and the rest of the current administration get it through their thick heads that billion dollar strike fighter programs and missile defense systems mean about as much in the 21st century as black powder musket production would've meant at the beginning of the 20th century.
Hijackings, biological and chemical attacks, and yes, even net warfare are the new weapons of mass destruction. We will ignore them at our own peril.
I personally am mildly disgusted by some of the mainstream media coverage I've seen of the aftermath. I really hate when obnoxious camera crews stick cameras in the faces of obviously traumatized survivors and ask inane questions like 'were you scared?', 'did you see anyone die?', or 'does this make you angry?'
Sheesh, I wish the media would a) let these people have some dignity, and b) quit asking so many stupid Sally Jessy-esque questions.
Apple's Dylan IDE was the only IDE that I've ever used that was both quantitatively and qualitatively better than other IDEs or command line tools. Qualitative because of the amazingly unique features and quantitative because of the immense boost to productivity.
Dylan stored all of your source code in a database and had this completely trippy multipane editor to work in. Grab the pane splitter control on any pane and split one pane into 2. Panes could contain views of a number of different types of data in the database - classes, methods, data members, call graphs, etc. etc. (I think there were about 15 or 16 different pane types) - and any pane could be hooked up to another so that one became the input to the next, i.e. hook a class pane up to a method pane, and hook that up to a source code pane and you get the classic SmallTalk browser. Add and delete panes to your hearts desire and the whole thing becomes nearly infinitely customizable.
Debugging was done in the context of the IDE - set a breakpoint in any of the panes and when the program hits a breakpoint you can edit the source code and recompile on the fly - while the program was running. Essentially you could work for hours and only ever launch the program once if you wanted to.
All other developer tools that I've ever used seem like stone age tools compared to what you could do in that thing..
The sad thing is except for the recompile on the fly thing you could do any of the above with C++ or any other language. Yet we're still stuck with source code stored in clumsy files and the tired edit-compile-debug cycle.
The point is that, given that Linux is already reasonably popular, you would think that some (maybe not all, but some) system vendors would offer dual boot on some of their configs. I mean, why not?
The only explanation for why vendors (like IBM) that sell Linux only, and Windows only systems don't also sell Win/Lin dual boot configs is because there's some licensing prohibition. A.K.A. anticompetitive behavior
It's a joke for crying out loud.. Get over yourself.
It's interesting that he casts .NET as an M$ strategy to compete with AOL. I hadn't thought of that before, but it makes sense now. I think the reason I hadn't seen that is because I've never used AOL. Ever. I've seen it being used over the shoulder of a couple different people, but for the past 11 years I've used what he describes as the plain old Internet.
.NET just like I avoid AOL.
I plan to continue that course: I'll avoid
I imagine it's going to be difficult to avoid without completely avoiding XP and future M$ OSes; I currently have 3 machines, a Mac, a Linux x86 box, and a Win98 box (mostly for gaming). I think Apple and the Powers That Be in the Linux world need to get the word out that if you value personal privacy and want to see an Internet in the future that isn't locked up by M$ (and M$'s henchmen), then people should consider using an alternative OS.
You can use the indexed digit of Pi both as the random value and also as the next index into Pi. You'd probably want (at least) 32 bit indexes each time.
Start it off with a seed of your own devising (current date/time stamp for instance).
Thats not much different from most other software pseudo rngs.
The first thing they need to do is to light a fire under Apple's butt to get the C++ support in gcc for OS X up to snuff.
. ht ml
http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/macosx_issues
A good buyer's agent will catch things you wouldn't even think of, and take care of all the details that you don't want to. There are dozens of forms that (by law) have to be filled out for a real estate transaction.
Do your initial searching on line if you like, but be sure and get a pro to close the deal. Theres too much money on the line to take that kind of risk.
check out the following link:
http://www.bungie.com/inside/soapbox896.htm
Pretty much 100% applicable today
About 10% of the population is left handed and would have a difficult time adapting to this thing. Even now after years of computer use I can't control a mouse pointer with my right hand with even a modicum of accuracy (I end up going up and left if I'm trying to go left, and down and right if I'm trying to go right.. drives me bonkers until I switch the mouse.)
Someone needs to perfect the eye tracking thing. A cross-hair cursor that tracks your eye and "mouse" buttons on the keyboad might actually work. Other than that the mouse is probably the best input device we're gonna get for windowing GUIs. (focus follows cursor style X11 desktops would probably suck for this though)
I see people posting that pervasive wireless net access isn't necessary, that they wouldn't use it, that existing laptops, cells, pdas, etc. are sufficient for their needs. These people sound like the people in the 70s that thought PCs weren't necessary because mainframes were perfectly capable of handling all their computing needs. What you aren't getting is that new uses, new applications could become possible that aren't possible (or practical) today. All the things you do with computers today evolved in their environments and are best suited to those environments. Of course those things could be cumbersome/impractical in some other environment. But new ways of doing things will evolve in that other environment that may be better than the old ways.
In other words, try to think beyond next month.
It depends on your definition of 'online' of course, but the first computer games ran on mainframes, which one accessed through terminals which by definition are remote. Many of the earliest games were multiplayer. If you take the narrow view that online = Internet as so many do today, then I guess thats not true.
Of course, arcade games were never online because they were played (duh) in arcades, which are inherently destination oriented (you *go* to the arcade to play). Still, to say online gaming didnt exist is not exactly true.
a) Its tied to a VM.
b) Its frameworks for GUI development try to be a least common denominator at the expense of running well on any given platform.
c) Its not a standard until Sun submits it to a real standards setting body. Until then its just as proprietary (in my mind) as Visual Basic, etc.
Just my 2 cents
The ammunition is strictly controlled.
Guns don't kill people, bullets do.
Thats why I support a comprehensive ammunition control law rather than a gun control law. Think about it, ammunition is expendable and perishable. Within months of taking bullets and gun powder off the shelves no one would be shooting anything with all those shiny guns.
What I don't understand, is why companies don't sell decent computers that are low powered and quiet for web surfing.
.3 dot-pitch el-cheapo monitors and commodity motherboards and cases.
I thought thats what iMacs and GV Cubes were. Being fan-less, they are amazingly quiet. An iMac won't set your pocketbook back by too much (although its a bit more than the assemble-it-yourself screwdriver set thinks it should be - but then those guys can't build a fan-less, dependable box either)
Sitting in front of a fan-less machine with a flat-panel display has a certain qualitative difference to it that is hard to describe to people that buy
Gibson has always sought profoundness where there wasn't much (or any).
Techno-shock happens all the time, in many small ways. How many senior citizens in our country are cut off from the cultural upheaval that is the Internet?
Techno-shock on a society-wide scale also is not that rare or even unusual, when viewed in the full scope of history. Most of the Middle-East went through a similar upheaval in the 20th century, caused by the rise in prominence of oil as a major natural resource. Of course, fundamentalism and xenophobia were the result there, but the transformation was at least as traumatic as Japan's and perhaps more so.
In post war Japan citizens were flogged to consume the products of Japanese industry. The electronics industry was identified early on as an area that Japanese wanted to become proficient at. This consumerism conditioning has a lot more to do with the Japanese' current preoccupation with buying lots of seemingly useless gadgets. (In fact, post war excesses in all of the combatant nations have led to many facts of life that are taken for granted in those societies - e.g. suburbanization of U.S. cities)
If Gibson wants to impress us with his "deep thinking" hes going to have to come up with something better than school girls sending text pages to each other. (my 15 year old sister might find it odd that he thinks that only happens in Japan - she carries around one of those iMac colored Nokias)
On a slightly more pedantic note, I found Gibsons numerous mis-spellings and the stupid 2 inch column layout to be extremely annoying for someone who is a published author.
ESPECIALLY if, like apple, you then just use it to run one monster server daemon
I suppose you're talking about the BSD layer.
Most users, however, are far more concerned about running Classic, Carbon, or Cocoa apps. Classic is a Mach process inside of which each Classic app is executed. Carbon and Cocoa apps are each individually Mach processes. So are system servers like the window server, pasteboard server, etc.
maybe a little off topic, but did anyone else get slightly annoyed by the condescending attitude towards the scientists and "eggheads" while the glass-blower was made out to be an artist and "maveric" etc. etc? Stupid mainstream media.. *grumbles*
No. I'm talking about the bugs you don't even know about. The tools/runtime environment of a single platform may not manifest them right out.
Lots (and lots, unfortunately) of products ship a dot-oh version that must immediately be patched because unknown bugs turned up. In my experience cross-platform code will ship with fewer unknown bugs because the different runtime environments provide more stress on the code.
Just my 2 cents, YMMV, maybe you know something special that I don't.
There are of course, other benefits to multi-platform coding than market numbers. Cross platform code often has fewer bugs because the different run-time environments of the different platforms it runs on often flush out bugs that would've otherwise squeaked by on just the primary platform.
The question about SDL is whether it is as stable and high-performance on those other platforms as it is on Linux. Loki's experiences don't tell us anything at all about how well SDL performs on, say, MacOS.
Firewire is supposed to solve this in the consumer market by vastly over-provisioning bandwidth, but there is only so far that approach scales.
FireWire is about a lot more than overprovisioning bandwidth. For instance it has an isochronous mode so that 2 devices on a FireWire bus can get a guaranteed slice of the bandwidth. Theres a lot more to FireWire that you should check into if you want to sound semi-informed.