My iDevice was running the least-outdated version of iOS 4 and not being too bothered about these things I never got round to updating it. Also, I was a bit leery about installing a new major release until the early adopters had suffered through the kinks. The release of the Google map app, which requires iOS 5.something or later was enough reason to finally upgrade.
My first Mac was a PPC G4 iBook which worked fine for all kinds of web development and working with various C/C++-based open source projects. For me at least, any subtle incompatibilities were due to the differing OS, not the underlying architecture, and that hasn't changed with the move to Intel.
However, although now I'm on my 2nd Intel MacBook, with the way things are going I can see a day when OS X gets too dumbed down/walled off to be useable for me and I'll become a very ex-Apple customer.
Seconded... I've corralled the company's system into something approaching sanity, but no time for any kind of documentation apart from the odd comment in the code (usually starting with "FIXME!"). There's also a plethora of sub-systems I have trouble managing even though I wrote them myself - mainly due to having to throw them together at short notice while working on something else at the same time.
Mind you I am the sole IT employee of a small company, so the entire process is under my control. FWIW It's a data-driven B2B web app kind of thing.
I prefer to split up change requests - including configuration changes - into individual numbered releases, which are tagged in SVN and documented on the login page visible to internal users, so the evolution of the app - and my contribution - is visible, especially for the people who wouldn't otherwise see what I'm doing.
If you can, get an account with Shinsei Bank, the system is much saner (relatively speaking). And you also get free ATM cash withdrawals at 7Eleven and post offices.
Clearly samzenpus has never had the pleasure of using a Japanese vending machine, which 99.99% of the time Just Workâ. Some even happily accept 10,000 yen notes (roughly equivalent to US$100) and give you the correct change.
Pre-1990: ZX Spectrum, CP/M 1990 or so: DOS 1992: Windows 3.1 1996 ~ 2000: Windows 95/98 (NT at work) 2000 ~ 2007: Linux (SuSE), FreeBSD (6 months or so), Ubuntu 2007 ~ : primarily OS X
I use Windows maybe once or twice a month, mainly to fix colleagues' issues or do something that absolutely requires Windows-only software. I was happy with Linux as a desktop/laptop environment (KDE 3) for a long time, but drifted over to OS X. I do have a Linux PC under my desk, but haven't used it for a few months... (it kind of works fine with Xubuntu, but after 10 years there's still so much which is a PITA). I do mainly DB-driven web app development, so any reasonably sane UNIXy environment suits me fine, and don't game much at all so no problems in that respect. On the other hand I am increasingly annoyed at the iOS-ification of OS X, and generally disillusioned with computing in general. FFS, Ubuntu was cool - this post is coming to you routed through a netbook running Xubuntu 8.04 (it runs fine as a router), but all this Unity crap makes me want to beat my head against the nearest wall.
I live in Japan and this kind of quake has been common since March, and is nothing to get excited about or make a special report on. When I saw the article headline (not long after waking up) I thought I might have missed something big, but no, it's just another offshore tremor.
Also, most of them are happening offshore, which limits the effects. Now, if a M6+ earthquake went off directly under Tokyo, things would be a little more dramatic.
Now, this is what woke me up the other day (at 5pm local time - jetlag!), a mere 6.2 but much closer to Tokyo than the one in the article, and it was so unremarkable I'd forgotten all about it until now.
OpenOffice.org has done something similar for ages, but I was never really comfortable with it. Probably the implementation was not as good as SWYPE though.
Japanese input methods are quite good at this kind of thing, in many cases it's just a case of inputting the first couple of letters of a word, space once or twice to select the appropriate word, enter, and Bob is one's uncle.
The number of times I've shown colleagues something in a shell, finished my demonstration and logged out with CTRL-D... and they ask me "how did you do that?"
Doesn't look like the train systems have their own separate power supplies; pretty much the entire network outside of some central lines has been pre-emptively shut down. This has had the effect of reducing demand as people simply can't get to their places of work of leisure. I've never seen Tokyo this un-crowded outside of the New Year holiday; for a normal working Monday it's pretty catastrophic.
On the other hand, last time I was in Vienna (2006 IIRC) my hosts were quite proud of the fact that the city had staved off a Starbucks invasion, and the place was quite (but not entirely) free of that and clone establishments. Mind you, similar goes for Berlin, where I was living at the time - the major attraction of Starbucks there was that it was one of the few places to offer a totally smoke-free environment. No wifi though.
Yup, I just took my "combustible" garbage out and there was no shortage of PET bottles mixed in with it, even though there is a separate collection day for those.
(As far as PET bottles go, Germany has a very simple solution: a mandatory 50 Euro-cent deposit on each bottle, and suddenly they become worth something, and there will always be someone willing to go round and pick up any dropped / lost ones).
People in India for a start. Only a couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of tracking down a break-in on the main production server of a partner company, and it turned out their web-facing application had evidently been written by someone working off a copy of "PHP for Dummies" (1999 edition), and would happily accept password-less logins for the user "admin # --".
True story: a few of days ago I requested our Indian subsidiary to set up a Linux box on their local network with SSH access so I could troubleshoot some network problems.
After the usual 10 days or so turnaround time (I believe emails which are sent to India are still transcribed into telegrams once they reach India soil) I got a reply, which I will paraphrase only slightly: "Sorry we cannot do the needful for ur request at this time. So we are sending you login info for our existing system. Plz do not change too much as our system might stop working".
The "login info" was... the root password to their primary application server.
I was sorely tempted to change it and come down on them like a metric shithouse of bricks, however I just know they would not update all the post-it notes and next time the one person at their end who actually requires root access needs it, they won't be able to log on and that part of the business will be royally screwed.
Slashdot Mirror
Gordon Moore? Gordon Brown? Gordon Ramsey? Gordon the Green Engine? Any chance of a clue for those of us who don't mix in Paul's social circles?
My iDevice was running the least-outdated version of iOS 4 and not being too bothered about these things I never got round to updating it. Also, I was a bit leery about installing a new major release until the early adopters had suffered through the kinks. The release of the Google map app, which requires iOS 5.something or later was enough reason to finally upgrade.
My first Mac was a PPC G4 iBook which worked fine for all kinds of web development and working with various C/C++-based open source projects. For me at least, any subtle incompatibilities were due to the differing OS, not the underlying architecture, and that hasn't changed with the move to Intel.
However, although now I'm on my 2nd Intel MacBook, with the way things are going I can see a day when OS X gets too dumbed down/walled off to be useable for me and I'll become a very ex-Apple customer.
Apollo 13, We Have a Solution
Bob? Microsoft Bob? You met Microsoft Bob in a science museum? I think we might be on to something here...
Seconded... I've corralled the company's system into something approaching sanity, but no time for any kind of documentation apart from the odd comment in the code (usually starting with "FIXME!"). There's also a plethora of sub-systems I have trouble managing even though I wrote them myself - mainly due to having to throw them together at short notice while working on something else at the same time.
Who on earth came up with that headline?
Walking away? From a release in progress? Do you worship at the Shrine of Murphy or something?
Mind you I am the sole IT employee of a small company, so the entire process is under my control. FWIW It's a data-driven B2B web app kind of thing.
I prefer to split up change requests - including configuration changes - into individual numbered releases, which are tagged in SVN and documented on the login page visible to internal users, so the evolution of the app - and my contribution - is visible, especially for the people who wouldn't otherwise see what I'm doing.
If you can, get an account with Shinsei Bank, the system is much saner (relatively speaking). And you also get free ATM cash withdrawals at 7Eleven and post offices.
Clearly samzenpus has never had the pleasure of using a Japanese vending machine, which 99.99% of the time Just Workâ. Some even happily accept 10,000 yen notes (roughly equivalent to US$100) and give you the correct change.
My IT history:
Pre-1990: ZX Spectrum, CP/M
1990 or so: DOS
1992: Windows 3.1
1996 ~ 2000: Windows 95/98 (NT at work)
2000 ~ 2007: Linux (SuSE), FreeBSD (6 months or so), Ubuntu
2007 ~ : primarily OS X
I use Windows maybe once or twice a month, mainly to fix colleagues' issues or do something that absolutely requires Windows-only software. I was happy with Linux as a desktop/laptop environment (KDE 3) for a long time, but drifted over to OS X. I do have a Linux PC under my desk, but haven't used it for a few months... (it kind of works fine with Xubuntu, but after 10 years there's still so much which is a PITA). I do mainly DB-driven web app development, so any reasonably sane UNIXy environment suits me fine, and don't game much at all so no problems in that respect. On the other hand I am increasingly annoyed at the iOS-ification of OS X, and generally disillusioned with computing in general. FFS, Ubuntu was cool - this post is coming to you routed through a netbook running Xubuntu 8.04 (it runs fine as a router), but all this Unity crap makes me want to beat my head against the nearest wall.
Time to take up sheep farming, maybe...
I live in Japan and this kind of quake has been common since March, and is nothing to get excited about or make a special report on. When I saw the article headline (not long after waking up) I thought I might have missed something big, but no, it's just another offshore tremor.
Also, most of them are happening offshore, which limits the effects. Now, if a M6+ earthquake went off directly under Tokyo, things would be a little more dramatic.
Now, this is what woke me up the other day (at 5pm local time - jetlag!), a mere 6.2 but much closer to Tokyo than the one in the article, and it was so unremarkable I'd forgotten all about it until now.
OpenOffice.org has done something similar for ages, but I was never really comfortable with it. Probably the implementation was not as good as SWYPE though.
Japanese input methods are quite good at this kind of thing, in many cases it's just a case of inputting the first couple of letters of a word, space once or twice to select the appropriate word, enter, and Bob is one's uncle.
The number of times I've shown colleagues something in a shell, finished my demonstration and logged out with CTRL-D... and they ask me "how did you do that?"
Stephen Baxter: Ark
Doesn't look like the train systems have their own separate power supplies; pretty much the entire network outside of some central lines has been pre-emptively shut down. This has had the effect of reducing demand as people simply can't get to their places of work of leisure. I've never seen Tokyo this un-crowded outside of the New Year holiday; for a normal working Monday it's pretty catastrophic.
You may also find they don't offer free wifi.
On the other hand, last time I was in Vienna (2006 IIRC) my hosts were quite proud of the fact that the city had staved off a Starbucks invasion, and the place was quite (but not entirely) free of that and clone establishments. Mind you, similar goes for Berlin, where I was living at the time - the major attraction of Starbucks there was that it was one of the few places to offer a totally smoke-free environment. No wifi though.
This is what I've been doing for years.
Though I'd swap the Opera and Chrome recommendations.
Will they pick up the latest threat to our freedoms?
Yup, I just took my "combustible" garbage out and there was no shortage of PET bottles mixed in with it, even though there is a separate collection day for those.
(As far as PET bottles go, Germany has a very simple solution: a mandatory 50 Euro-cent deposit on each bottle, and suddenly they become worth something, and there will always be someone willing to go round and pick up any dropped / lost ones).
People in India for a start. Only a couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of tracking down a break-in on the main production server of a partner company, and it turned out their web-facing application had evidently been written by someone working off a copy of "PHP for Dummies" (1999 edition), and would happily accept password-less logins for the user "admin # --".
Does this mean off-licences in Australia will be running a Windows emulation layer?
True story: a few of days ago I requested our Indian subsidiary to set up a Linux box on their local network with SSH access so I could troubleshoot some network problems.
After the usual 10 days or so turnaround time (I believe emails which are sent to India are still transcribed into telegrams once they reach India soil) I got a reply, which I will paraphrase only slightly: "Sorry we cannot do the needful for ur request at this time. So we are sending you login info for our existing system. Plz do not change too much as our system might stop working".
The "login info" was... the root password to their primary application server.
I was sorely tempted to change it and come down on them like a metric shithouse of bricks, however I just know they would not update all the post-it notes and next time the one person at their end who actually requires root access needs it, they won't be able to log on and that part of the business will be royally screwed.