When my wife and I went to Vegas, one of the casinos had a chicken you could play tic-tac-toe against. Basically, the chicken had been trained to peck whatever spot on the wall of its cage was lit up, so you were really playing the computer. Anyway, if you beat the chicken, you won like $50,000.
When I played, the game blew up on a runtime error. The chicken's assistant had to restart the game from Windows. It wasn't a BSOD, but it made me feel better after losing to a chicken.:-)
About three weeks ago (On Sept. 11. Timing is everything, isn't it?), my team was sitting around, discussing plans for a major overhaul of our software, when another developer came over.
"Are you guys talking about (our Chicago office)?"
We told him we weren't. He then explained he had just received a call from one of them. That office had just been informed that they were all being laid off and the office was being shut down in 60 days.
We all wondered why 60 days, because in the past, layoffs were immediate. If I had known about the WARN act, I would have known what was coming next.
A few minutes later, we were all called into the conference room and handed envelopes. The company was firing 75% of its employees, and the envelopes would tell us if and when we were being let go. My wife (who works at the same company) and I were both fired, but have jobs until Nov. 10. It apparently wasn't the best way to handle it, because even some who were keeping their jobs thought they had been fired.
It wasn't all that unexpected, because the company had been in a slow death spiral for about a year. Things could be worse. Since our manager was also laid off, we can now come and go as we please, and spend our days looking for jobs and working on our home business.
I really hate to say it, but in at least this one case my CSS presentation would have "looked better in IE" because IE actually implemented the standards correctly, and Mozilla blew it. I hate it when Microsoft is right!
Actually, IE blew it. Width and min-width cannot be applied to non-replaced inline elements. Take a look at the spec, then go visit the validator.
In college, there were these 2 guys who had a knack for saying very stupid things. My friends & I would keep track each day to see which of them made the highest number of stupid remarks.
Not so much a boredom chaser as it was a way to keep me from killing the two of them...:-)
I often use the recorder as a handy note-taking device, not only for interviews but to dictate notes to myself while I'm driving or engaged in other hand-occupying activities.
And the title of the article is "Forget the Palm - Give Me The Finger."
I'd make a joke, but nothing I could say could compete with that...
(BTW, the lameness filter just told me I had to wait 2 minutes before submitting another comment -- even though I haven't submitted any comments yet. There couldn't possibly be a bug in Slash, could there?)
human://billy.j.mabray/
I don't use it here, but I created this one in college. I had created a webpage (running on a webserver the school didn't know they were hosting *grin*) called "The Hitchhiker's Guide To OBU". Take the first letters (THGTOBU), mix thoroughly, and you get Boghtut. I basically did it because I wanted something nobody else had.
At Oklahoma Baptist University, there are exactly 2 comp. sci. profs. -- Dr. & Mr. Hanchey. They were exceptional teachers who taught us the importance of testing, documentation, retesting, keeping up with current technologies, and retesting.:-) They had both worked in the IT industry, so they were able to give us real world advice. And, it's obvious how much they care about their students.
I have SWBell in Oklahoma City, and it's been great. It took about a month to get it, but since then I haven't had any problems with it. I installed the hardware & software myself, & tech support was very helpful. I haven't needed to call them since. Great speed, and consistent -- I have friends with cable modems who are alway complaining about how slow it is during peak times.
Another indicator I saw recently was that the USA spends far more of its GDP on health care than Australia.. but guess which countries health system was rated better by the WHO???
Am I the only one wondering what Hemos is doing posting stories just 2 days after getting married? Dude, take a break from the geek compound & enjoy married life...:-)
Or maybe the first application of the HGP was to clone Hemos...
Madonna is the biggest name to join the ongoing fight over the protection of music copyrights on the internet.
Lawsuits against Napster will be dropped due to lack of interest, as musicians fight over the more important issue of which of them is the "biggest name"...
Delphi would probably be a good choice. The underlying code is Pascal, which is designed to be a teaching language. Being able to create visual & interactive programs will keep their interest more than commmand line stuff would. If they enjoy that, move them up to C++ Builder, so they can learn a language that will be useful later on.
As I understand the DMCA, Microsoft is fully justified in requesting the comments containing the specs be removed. However...
The editors of/. (as well as a large percentage of their readers) have made statements that indicate they believe current copyright law -- the DMCA in particular -- is wrong and should be revised. If they truly believe that, then they should not remove the posts and they should fight this to the bitter end. They certainly have my support if they do...
One other thing... it's programs like Winzip & Winrar that allow people to circumvent the EULA... According to the DMCA, shouldn't Microsoft be suing them?:-)
The "average" user is not going to want to be anywhere near the source code. If it doesn't work like they want it, straight out of the box, they're going to toss it and buy something else. If OSS developers intend to mass-market their products, they must "dumb them down" to the masses.
When I have kids, I want them to go to a school like this. It's nice to see a school that realizes there are alternatives to shelling out thousands of dollars to set up a Windows network. There are lots of schools that just do without because they are either too afraid of trying OSS, too lazy, or simply don't understand that it is a viable alternative.
Any parents out there reading this story should print it, and the next time your children's school says they don't have enough money for more/better computers, show it to them. Help get more programs like this started around the country.
Slashdot Mirror
When my wife and I went to Vegas, one of the casinos had a chicken you could play tic-tac-toe against. Basically, the chicken had been trained to peck whatever spot on the wall of its cage was lit up, so you were really playing the computer. Anyway, if you beat the chicken, you won like $50,000.
:-)
When I played, the game blew up on a runtime error. The chicken's assistant had to restart the game from Windows. It wasn't a BSOD, but it made me feel better after losing to a chicken.
About three weeks ago (On Sept. 11. Timing is everything, isn't it?), my team was sitting around, discussing plans for a major overhaul of our software, when another developer came over.
"Are you guys talking about (our Chicago office)?"
We told him we weren't. He then explained he had just received a call from one of them. That office had just been informed that they were all being laid off and the office was being shut down in 60 days.
We all wondered why 60 days, because in the past, layoffs were immediate. If I had known about the WARN act, I would have known what was coming next.
A few minutes later, we were all called into the conference room and handed envelopes. The company was firing 75% of its employees, and the envelopes would tell us if and when we were being let go. My wife (who works at the same company) and I were both fired, but have jobs until Nov. 10. It apparently wasn't the best way to handle it, because even some who were keeping their jobs thought they had been fired.
It wasn't all that unexpected, because the company had been in a slow death spiral for about a year. Things could be worse. Since our manager was also laid off, we can now come and go as we please, and spend our days looking for jobs and working on our home business.
...in the "Interface Hall of Shame" using frames? :-)
In college, there were these 2 guys who had a knack for saying very stupid things. My friends & I would keep track each day to see which of them made the highest number of stupid remarks.
:-)
Not so much a boredom chaser as it was a way to keep me from killing the two of them...
I'd make a joke, but nothing I could say could compete with that...
(BTW, the lameness filter just told me I had to wait 2 minutes before submitting another comment -- even though I haven't submitted any comments yet. There couldn't possibly be a bug in Slash, could there?)
human://billy.j.mabray/
If you can't trust a stranger on the internet, who can you trust?
human://billy.j.mabray/
...which consisted of reading the CNN article, and consulting a time zone map, here is my guess:
:-)
2001-03-18 10:56:12
The things I'll do for a t-shirt...
human://billy.j.mabray/
I don't use it here, but I created this one in college. I had created a webpage (running on a webserver the school didn't know they were hosting *grin*) called "The Hitchhiker's Guide To OBU". Take the first letters (THGTOBU), mix thoroughly, and you get Boghtut. I basically did it because I wanted something nobody else had.
human://billy.j.mabray/
At Oklahoma Baptist University, there are exactly 2 comp. sci. profs. -- Dr. & Mr. Hanchey. They were exceptional teachers who taught us the importance of testing, documentation, retesting, keeping up with current technologies, and retesting. :-) They had both worked in the IT industry, so they were able to give us real world advice. And, it's obvious how much they care about their students.
human://billy.j.mabray/
human://billy.j.mabray/
I have SWBell in Oklahoma City, and it's been great. It took about a month to get it, but since then I haven't had any problems with it. I installed the hardware & software myself, & tech support was very helpful. I haven't needed to call them since. Great speed, and consistent -- I have friends with cable modems who are alway complaining about how slow it is during peak times.
human://billy.j.mabray/
Another indicator I saw recently was that the USA spends far more of its GDP on health care than Australia .. but guess which countries health system was rated better by the WHO???
Why is Pete Townshend rating health care systems?
Did anyone else notice that the images on the GNU art site were available as gifs? Doesn't this go against the philosophy of GNU?
Am I the only one wondering what Hemos is doing posting stories just 2 days after getting married? Dude, take a break from the geek compound & enjoy married life... :-)
Or maybe the first application of the HGP was to clone Hemos...
Lawsuits against Napster will be dropped due to lack of interest, as musicians fight over the more important issue of which of them is the "biggest name"...
Microsoft claims "Digital Diva" is not trademarkable, but "Where do you want to go today?" is?
Anyone with some extra clues lying around, send them to Redmond -- there's apparently a shortage up there...
Just be careful if you get an e-mail from them on Father's Day that says ILOVEYOU... :-)
Delphi would probably be a good choice. The underlying code is Pascal, which is designed to be a teaching language. Being able to create visual & interactive programs will keep their interest more than commmand line stuff would. If they enjoy that, move them up to C++ Builder, so they can learn a language that will be useful later on.
As I understand the DMCA, Microsoft is fully justified in requesting the comments containing the specs be removed. However...
/. (as well as a large percentage of their readers) have made statements that indicate they believe current copyright law -- the DMCA in particular -- is wrong and should be revised. If they truly believe that, then they should not remove the posts and they should fight this to the bitter end. They certainly have my support if they do...
:-)
The editors of
One other thing... it's programs like Winzip & Winrar that allow people to circumvent the EULA... According to the DMCA, shouldn't Microsoft be suing them?
MIA
KIA
POW
GPF
The "average" user is not going to want to be anywhere near the source code. If it doesn't work like they want it, straight out of the box, they're going to toss it and buy something else. If OSS developers intend to mass-market their products, they must "dumb them down" to the masses.
It's sad, but true...
http://billy.j.mabray/
When I have kids, I want them to go to a school like this. It's nice to see a school that realizes there are alternatives to shelling out thousands of dollars to set up a Windows network. There are lots of schools that just do without because they are either too afraid of trying OSS, too lazy, or simply don't understand that it is a viable alternative.
Any parents out there reading this story should print it, and the next time your children's school says they don't have enough money for more/better computers, show it to them. Help get more programs like this started around the country.
http://billy.j.mabray/
If they want the thing to be realistic, it has to be able to shed on every piece of clothing and furniture in the house...
http://billy.j.mabray/
Ok, I just registered slashdots.org, where I'm going to sell kitty litter. Please limit all further discussions on this site to kitty litter...
http://billy.j.mabray/