I'm old enough to remember when all "serious" programs were written in assembly, and compiled code were looked down upon as "too slow" or "only for wimply programmers."
I am an NPR junkie. I have a one-hour commute every day. I no longer listen to the radio and just to the shows I downloaded from NPR on my non-Apple MP3 player. My routine is this:
1. Once a week, I go through the npr.org and scpr.org (Southern California Public Radio -- my local NPR station) and download the.smil or.ram files for the specific shows I want to listen to. I skip the ones where I can get as podcasts already, such as Science Friday, since I can already download them as MP3 files. This takes about an hour a week.
2. I run a script that downloads and converts the.smil and.ram streams into.mp3 files. This gives me enough listening material for about a week. I run this script overnight, since it can take a while.
3. When I've exhausted the current audios on my MP3 player, I copy the new shows over.
I do contribute to KPCC, my local NPR station, so I do not feel like I'm "stealing" the shows.
Below is the script I use. It requires mplayer (with Real codec), sox, and lame. If you use this script, I kindly ask that you contribute to your local NPR station as well.
#!/bin/sh
export SOX=sox
for i in $* do echo $i filename=`echo $i | sed 's/\.ram//'` filename=`echo $filename | sed 's/\.smil//'`
# download real stream and save as WAV file mplayer -playlist $i -ao pcm:file=$filename.wav -vc dummy -vo null
# extract the largest volume adjustment without clipping VOLUME_ADJUST=`$SOX "$filename.wav" -t.wav "$filename.tmp.wav" stat -v 2>&1` echo "VOLUME ADJUST: $VOLUME_ADJUST" # perform the volume adjustment $SOX -v $VOLUME_ADJUST -t.wav "$filename.tmp.wav" "$filename.wav" # remove temporary file rm -f "$filename.tmp.wav"
# reduce to mono for size $SOX "$filename.wav" -c 1 -t.wav "$filename.tmp.wav" mv -f "$filename.tmp.wav" "$filename.wav"
# convert from WAV to MP3 lame $filename.wav $filename.mp3
With the Intel-based Macs, I wonder if Apple will feel the pressure to keep up the GHz race with other PCs. If so, does that mean an updated CPU every few months?
Apple could dodge the GHz number when they're on the PowerPC. That's harder to do now.
The real reason why Microsoft does not fully embrace W3C standards is because they want to move away from browser-based application. This is also the reason why they let IE development go into the tank.
In the browser-based application model, MS does not control the desktop. They have competitions from Firefox and Opera. More importantly, MS also does not control the server. They have competition not only from Apache, but also Google, Amazon, eBay, AOL, and anyone who publishes a web application.
Microsoft's aim is to control both ends of a network application. And the way they are going to do this is to replace HTTP web servers with IIS and Exchange Server and to replace web browsers with Outlook. The.NET platform is just a step towards that goal. If you accept IIS/Exchange and Outlook as a server/client network application platform, there is no need for W3C standards. It also eliminates any competition, or at least make the competition dependent on Microsoft technologies.
Therefore, any effort that Microsoft expends into making "the web" more usable, such as CSS compliance and updates to IE, only enhances the browser-based application model and hurts Microsoft in the long run.
If you find your software engineering job "boring", here are some possible reasons.
Your current job is boring, but you enjoy software engineering work. In which case, your solution should be to find another job.
You are bored with software engineering in general. In which case, having a graduate degree is not going to solve anything. You should be looking for another line of work.
You are bored with coding, and want to do "software architect" work, and you believe having an advanced degree will help you achive that. Well, speaking as someone who has an MS in CS and have worked with many other software architects, I can tell you the qualification for being a software architect is the experience, not the degree. So you are better off sticking with your "boring" coding job until you get the amount experience where you can be an architect. Although I understand in some cultures the degree is worth more than the experience, that is almost never the case in the U.S.
In my opinion, the only reason to get an advanced degree in CS/CE is because you are personally challenged to understand the theoretical aspects of computing. If you just want to advance your career, you're better off spending that extra two years gaining work experience.
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I'm old enough to remember when all "serious" programs were written in assembly, and compiled code were looked down upon as "too slow" or "only for wimply programmers."
I am an NPR junkie. I have a one-hour commute every day. I no longer listen to the radio and just to the shows I downloaded from NPR on my non-Apple MP3 player. My routine is this:
1. Once a week, I go through the npr.org and scpr.org (Southern California Public Radio -- my local NPR station) and download the .smil or .ram files for the specific shows I want to listen to. I skip the ones where I can get as podcasts already, such as Science Friday, since I can already download them as MP3 files. This takes about an hour a week.
2. I run a script that downloads and converts the .smil and .ram streams into .mp3 files. This gives me enough listening material for about a week. I run this script overnight, since it can take a while.
3. When I've exhausted the current audios on my MP3 player, I copy the new shows over.
I do contribute to KPCC, my local NPR station, so I do not feel like I'm "stealing" the shows. Below is the script I use. It requires mplayer (with Real codec), sox, and lame. If you use this script, I kindly ask that you contribute to your local NPR station as well.
You would run the script like this:
With the Intel-based Macs, I wonder if Apple will feel the pressure to keep up the GHz race with other PCs. If so, does that mean an updated CPU every few months?
Apple could dodge the GHz number when they're on the PowerPC. That's harder to do now.
Please attach your data file, including all bank account and credit card information. Thanks.
This is the lyrics from the song "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid.
The real reason why Microsoft does not fully embrace W3C standards is because they want to move away from browser-based application. This is also the reason why they let IE development go into the tank.
In the browser-based application model, MS does not control the desktop. They have competitions from Firefox and Opera. More importantly, MS also does not control the server. They have competition not only from Apache, but also Google, Amazon, eBay, AOL, and anyone who publishes a web application.
Microsoft's aim is to control both ends of a network application. And the way they are going to do this is to replace HTTP web servers with IIS and Exchange Server and to replace web browsers with Outlook. The .NET platform is just a step towards that goal. If you accept IIS/Exchange and Outlook as a server/client network application platform, there is no need for W3C standards. It also eliminates any competition, or at least make the competition dependent on Microsoft technologies.
Therefore, any effort that Microsoft expends into making "the web" more usable, such as CSS compliance and updates to IE, only enhances the browser-based application model and hurts Microsoft in the long run.
- Your current job is boring, but you enjoy software engineering work. In which case, your solution should be to find another job.
- You are bored with software engineering in general. In which case, having a graduate degree is not going to solve anything. You should be looking for another line of work.
- You are bored with coding, and want to do "software architect" work, and you believe having an advanced degree will help you achive that. Well, speaking as someone who has an MS in CS and have worked with many other software architects, I can tell you the qualification for being a software architect is the experience, not the degree. So you are better off sticking with your "boring" coding job until you get the amount experience where you can be an architect. Although I understand in some cultures the degree is worth more than the experience, that is almost never the case in the U.S.
In my opinion, the only reason to get an advanced degree in CS/CE is because you are personally challenged to understand the theoretical aspects of computing. If you just want to advance your career, you're better off spending that extra two years gaining work experience.Interesting that the article is in the "Local News" section of the Tucson Citizen.
I thought some of the landscapes around Tucson look extraterrestrial. Now it makes sense.