It's the other way around. The USA leads in so many areas of science because it drains the brains from so many countries. (See: Manhattan Project, Apollo Project).
Note: I'm not saying the USA doesn't have any scientists of its own, just that it has more than it's fair share because it imports so many.
The space race was never about that. It was a dick-measuring contest between two superpowers. Ambition and curiosity were good for the rousing speeches but not much else.
This reminds me of another great book (from which I learned most of my C): "The C Book" by Mike Banahan. It is out of print now, but it has been made freely available at http://publications.gbdirect.co.uk/c_book
... using the expertise of a bunch of German rocket scientists.
The US has Boeing...
... thanks to the jet engine, invented by a Brit.
America's special talent seems to be taking inventions from others and making them fit for mass consumption(*). But I'm not so sure they're the great innovators you claim they are.
(*) A trend that was curiously reversed with the Internet and the World Wide Web.
Add Code Complete to the reading list as well as The Pragmatic Programmer
Replace Code Complete with "The Practice of Programming" by Kernighan and Pike (yes, that Kernighan. Yes, that Pike) and you've got something. You can keep Code Complete for when you can't sleep (IMHO, YMMV).
Realistically? None. But the alternative is that HP sticks the whole project on a tape, plasters it with copyright notices and lets is rot for ever more in a vault somewhere. So good for them for open sourcing it.
Oh, sure. First violate another country's airspace, then compound the error by sending in an airstrike to destroy the property you so carelessly lost. If another country did that to the US, there'd be hell to pay.
Honestly, it's no wonder the US has such a bad rep in some parts of the world. Maybe you shouldn't have been flying your precious drones over another country if you didn't want to lose them.
Not really, a lot of books cost money. Why would this one be different?
First of all, it's not a book. It's a PDF. Second of all, the Netherlands is a member body of ISO, so I have already paid for it through my taxes. I should be able to use the fruits of ISO without additional cost (or maybe some nominal fee). Third of all, an ISO standard has the status of a law: you'd better do it this way, or else. So they're telling me the law has changed, and then charging me 300 euros to find out precisely what the new law is. I believe that's called extortion.
It produces 2.1 watts for how long? 1 second? 100ms?
For as long as you keep walking, I guess. As long as you produce a Joule each second, you're producing 1 Watt.
The potential energy in a gravitational field is m * g * h, so if you sink 5 mm with every step, you're producing 9.81 * 0.005 = 0.04905 Joule for every kg of body weight at each step. If you take p(ace) steps per second while walking, you're producing p * m * 0.04905 Joules per second, i.e. Watts, as long as you keep walking. So an 80 kg (~160 lbs) person who walks at 2 steps per second could theoretically (i.e. at 100% efficiency) produce 2 * 80 * 0.04905 = 7.8 Watts. So 2.1 Watts means a 30% efficiency. Doesn't seem unbelievable to me.
If they had gone with the embedded length option we'd be sitting around bitching about how short-sighted it was to use just two bytes for the length. Including how Dennis Ritchie supposedly said "64K strings should be enough for anybody".
I wish it made sense for Canada to revoke all of its extradition treaties with the US over this. Unfortunately, that would mean Canada would become a haven for actual criminals, which would be quite bad for Canadians
Then maybe not revoke, but "suspend pending an investigation". That would at least get the attention of the international press.
They'll probably take the rulebook on cavity searches, and tack on a new rule that says it's also okay to create a cavity. Yes it's messy, but think of the children!
I recently decided to put Ubuntu 11.04 on a spare machine, just to see what all the fuss was about. I hated it, for the same reasons that others have given above. It seemed to be different for the sake of being different. The clincher was when I tried to open a second text terminal. It wouldn't let me, presumably because I already had that application open, and why on earth would I need two of them?
So then, just for kicks, I decided to install the latest Debian. When the desktop came up it felt like coming home. In fact, I was a little shocked to see how much it looked like the Ubuntu I was used to. There was a Debian logo in the upper left corner instead of an Ubuntu one, but that seemed to be the only difference. The same applications, the same themes, the same everything. I never realised how little Ubuntu added to its Debian base.
So I've made up my mind. The next big reinstall is going to be Debian instead of Ubuntu. Best of luck to Ubuntu with its Unity, its Wayland, its Ubuntu Software Center and its Ubuntu One, but as far as I'm concerned it's time for something else.
I can speak 5 languages, but I'm really not sure I could tell the difference between Swedish and Danish
I speak maybe 2.5 languages, and I am sure: I certainly couldn't tell the difference. But if someone at a Danish airport addresses me in a scandinavian-sounding language I'm not going to assume it's Swedish. Which is the equivalent of what happened here.
Hopefully this will finally get the big companies to realize the current absurdity in the patent system, and push their paid for politicians to reform the system. Their practice of building a war chests of patents does little when you have a someone like this who (like wall street and finance in general) builds nothing and has no productive business function.
Um, yeah. That's like saying, at the height of the cold war, that the superpowers may realize the absurdity of the nuclear arms race. "The only reason the other guy is stockpiling nukes is that I'm doing the same. So I'll just stop, then he'll stop, and the world will be a better place". Un-bloody-likely.
Slashdot Mirror
... what is CW?
It's the other way around. The USA leads in so many areas of science because it drains the brains from so many countries. (See: Manhattan Project, Apollo Project).
Note: I'm not saying the USA doesn't have any scientists of its own, just that it has more than it's fair share because it imports so many.
Just one question: Wait, what?!
... does the right to shoot guns include the right to shoot guns anywhere you damn well please?
Seems to me there's a parallel with the right to free speech not including the right to yell "fire!" in a crowded theater.
Everyone listens to Reason.
The space race was never about that. It was a dick-measuring contest between two superpowers. Ambition and curiosity were good for the rousing speeches but not much else.
This reminds me of another great book (from which I learned most of my C): "The C Book" by Mike Banahan. It is out of print now, but it has been made freely available at http://publications.gbdirect.co.uk/c_book
I liked it a lot.
Ah. A temperature scale based on what's convenient in Iowa. Good choice.
NASA went to space...
... using the expertise of a bunch of German rocket scientists.
The US has Boeing...
... thanks to the jet engine, invented by a Brit.
America's special talent seems to be taking inventions from others and making them fit for mass consumption(*). But I'm not so sure they're the great innovators you claim they are.
(*) A trend that was curiously reversed with the Internet and the World Wide Web.
Just 1.28 cm more
That's half an inch, you insensitive clod.
Add Code Complete to the reading list as well as The Pragmatic Programmer
Replace Code Complete with "The Practice of Programming" by Kernighan and Pike (yes, that Kernighan. Yes, that Pike) and you've got something. You can keep Code Complete for when you can't sleep (IMHO, YMMV).
I wonder how much attention it will get.
Realistically? None. But the alternative is that HP sticks the whole project on a tape, plasters it with copyright notices and lets is rot for ever more in a vault somewhere. So good for them for open sourcing it.
Oh, sure. First violate another country's airspace, then compound the error by sending in an airstrike to destroy the property you so carelessly lost. If another country did that to the US, there'd be hell to pay.
Honestly, it's no wonder the US has such a bad rep in some parts of the world. Maybe you shouldn't have been flying your precious drones over another country if you didn't want to lose them.
Not really, a lot of books cost money. Why would this one be different?
First of all, it's not a book. It's a PDF. Second of all, the Netherlands is a member body of ISO, so I have already paid for it through my taxes. I should be able to use the fruits of ISO without additional cost (or maybe some nominal fee). Third of all, an ISO standard has the status of a law: you'd better do it this way, or else. So they're telling me the law has changed, and then charging me 300 euros to find out precisely what the new law is. I believe that's called extortion.
No, that's "Vodka Fry". Different thing altogether.
It produces 2.1 watts for how long? 1 second? 100ms?
For as long as you keep walking, I guess. As long as you produce a Joule each second, you're producing 1 Watt.
The potential energy in a gravitational field is m * g * h, so if you sink 5 mm with every step, you're producing 9.81 * 0.005 = 0.04905 Joule for every kg of body weight at each step. If you take p(ace) steps per second while walking, you're producing p * m * 0.04905 Joules per second, i.e. Watts, as long as you keep walking. So an 80 kg (~160 lbs) person who walks at 2 steps per second could theoretically (i.e. at 100% efficiency) produce 2 * 80 * 0.04905 = 7.8 Watts. So 2.1 Watts means a 30% efficiency. Doesn't seem unbelievable to me.
Second: there is a /. Sensation Prevention Section...
<Snort>Sure, that'll work</Snort>
If they had gone with the embedded length option we'd be sitting around bitching about how short-sighted it was to use just two bytes for the length. Including how Dennis Ritchie supposedly said "64K strings should be enough for anybody".
I wish it made sense for Canada to revoke all of its extradition treaties with the US over this. Unfortunately, that would mean Canada would become a haven for actual criminals, which would be quite bad for Canadians
Then maybe not revoke, but "suspend pending an investigation". That would at least get the attention of the international press.
They'll probably take the rulebook on cavity searches, and tack on a new rule that says it's also okay to create a cavity. Yes it's messy, but think of the children!
I recently decided to put Ubuntu 11.04 on a spare machine, just to see what all the fuss was about. I hated it, for the same reasons that others have given above. It seemed to be different for the sake of being different. The clincher was when I tried to open a second text terminal. It wouldn't let me, presumably because I already had that application open, and why on earth would I need two of them?
So then, just for kicks, I decided to install the latest Debian. When the desktop came up it felt like coming home. In fact, I was a little shocked to see how much it looked like the Ubuntu I was used to. There was a Debian logo in the upper left corner instead of an Ubuntu one, but that seemed to be the only difference. The same applications, the same themes, the same everything. I never realised how little Ubuntu added to its Debian base.
So I've made up my mind. The next big reinstall is going to be Debian instead of Ubuntu. Best of luck to Ubuntu with its Unity, its Wayland, its Ubuntu Software Center and its Ubuntu One, but as far as I'm concerned it's time for something else.
Consumer? Consumer? I'm not a "consumer", I'm a valued member of the Apple family!
</sarcasm>
I can speak 5 languages, but I'm really not sure I could tell the difference between Swedish and Danish
I speak maybe 2.5 languages, and I am sure: I certainly couldn't tell the difference. But if someone at a Danish airport addresses me in a scandinavian-sounding language I'm not going to assume it's Swedish. Which is the equivalent of what happened here.
Oh no you don't. I'm using those!
Hopefully this will finally get the big companies to realize the current absurdity in the patent system, and push their paid for politicians to reform the system. Their practice of building a war chests of patents does little when you have a someone like this who (like wall street and finance in general) builds nothing and has no productive business function.
Um, yeah. That's like saying, at the height of the cold war, that the superpowers may realize the absurdity of the nuclear arms race. "The only reason the other guy is stockpiling nukes is that I'm doing the same. So I'll just stop, then he'll stop, and the world will be a better place". Un-bloody-likely.