Where do you get your TiVo? Is it something you bought third party? If
so, how does it work with digital cable? According to the website you'd need
the $800 dollar model to get HD.
I bought my Series 1, a Sony SVR-2000, from Sound Advice (a
Tweeter company). Bought my Series 2
from Crutchfield. I bought the
Series3 from the TiVo Community store—they had the
best price at the time.
There are two CableCard slots in the back, one for each tuner. You plug
your coaxial cable from the wall into the back of the unit, and stick the
Cablecards in the slots. Cable company authorizes the cards, and you're
good to go. My cable company (Brighthouse Central Florida) had to come out
to plug the cards in and authorize them, but there was no charge, and the whole
thing took about 15 minutes.
If you want HD, you need the Series3. I bought mine for $680. The
TiVo Community store has 'em for $619, and you may be able to find 'em cheaper.
Tivo does. Sort by show or date/time recorded. Also groups
related shows together into a folder (e.g., "Doctor Who - 5 episodes").
Series 3 also puts all HD shows in another folder.
I also have a 400 GB RAID for storage
Tivo doesn't offer RAID. It's pretty easy to stick a second (or replace
your original with a larger) drive. Series 2 (non-HD) does allow transfers
back and forth from your computer, so you can store 'em on your own RAID, tape
backup, DVD-ROM, or what have you. Series 3 doesn't have this; it appears to be a legal issue getting worked out with Cable Labs. You'll probably see the same thing on any new device with a CableCard in it.
MythTV also has a nice web interface
Tivo's got one, too.
My MythTV box has been up for a solid month without any problems
My Tivo's uptime is measured
in months/years. It reboots itself when new updates are available. It does this at
2:00 AM and hasn't missed a show yet. In the 7 years that I've had a Tivo
(Series 1/2/3), I've forced a reboot *once*.
Tivo is an incredibly easy to use, rock solid (hey, it's running Linux)
unit. Look, if you're happy tinkering with the thing, more power to ya.
As for me, I turn the TV on when I'm done working, the kids are in bed, and I'm
looking to unwind. I've got enough between work and my own side
projects--I don't need to be messing with the TV, too.
One other point (and you may have had a solid Myth system for long enough to
see this): When you get a device like a Tivo that is stable, simple to
use, and works every time, things change. It becomes a new tool
that transforms how you do things. I can't imagine watching TV without
Tivo--it's that different (and that much better) than plain-old service. I
skip commercials (but fast-forward through them so I can catch new show
announcements or the occasional ad that is amusing the first time you see it).
I watch shows on "Tivo time," skipping through the boring parts. I fast
forward to the end of the remodeling show so I can see the results without all
the witty banter. I check out old shows I haven't seen in years because
Tivo had space and nothing better to do than record it. I don't worry
about when seasonal shows are on (like the Peanuts ones)--Tivo catches them for
me.
If you like watching TV, and you don't have this kind of experience, you
should get a Tivo.
That is an associates link - if that bothers you, don't click it. If history holds true there will be a non-associates link available right quick if not already
Last I knew, on windows, there is no easy way to keep user configs and programs on partitions separate from the OS
Well, it's obviously been a long time since you looked, or you didn't look very hard. The TweakUI "powertoy" from Microsoft (link is to Google since there are a couple of different versions) has allowed you to specify what MS calls special folder locations -- like your $HOME directory -- since at least Windows 98.
I've been storing my desktop, shortcuts, documents, etc. on a separate partition for the past several years. Some folders (like My Documents) can be "moved" by drag-and-drop or by right-clicking, but I've gotten used to the TweakUI route.
Like Linux, Windows can do what you need if you're interested enough to find out what's already out there.
Some simplified math:
[...]
the transfer will cost $278.08, or $100 per MB of data.
Some better simplified math:
There are places that sell CDs all over the country. They manage to make a profit by selling a CD with roughly 500MB of data for $17, including:
Manufacturing
Record company and artist profit
Transportation
So although a car may not be the most efficient form of surface transportation, ground shipping can be pretty cost effective. And increase the bandwith by a factor of 30 if we're talking about a semi full of 2-disk Special Edition DVDs.
I remember that [the api.tlb type library]. It was pretty handy, but
many of the large projects, which weren't under my control, were very picky
over their dependencies, so I couldn't use it. I know it's irrational, but
that's the way things go sometimes.
I don't understand why someone would have a problem with a development mode
only dependency (it's not like you have to ship it), but I feel your pain.
[pointers to structs in structs] font chooser dialog requires a struct with a pointer to a LOGFONT
struct
That was the only thing I could think of when I wrote my original message.
It is definitely ugly. The pIDL stuff for fetching shell info
(application/file icon, context menu verbs, etc.) is also ugly, but I'll admit
I'm too ignorant (and too lazy to go dig though my source) to know if that stuff
has the same issue, or just something similar.
[on reviewing disassembled VB6 output] turned out that the
interface had a function where it took a reference to an ADO object and the
client didn't have ADO installed [...] found a bug in Crystal Reports like
that
Sounds a little extreme to me. Half-split troubleshooting would've
found both of those issues.
surprised you saw an order of magnitude difference
I'm not, after seeing the generated machine code
All I meant to say was that the benchmarks I've seen indicated a much smaller
difference in code performance. VB6 is not the best way to do tight
numerical algorithms, and I guess I'm not too surprised that an MD5 checksum
calculation takes a bit longer. Certainly, the tool is designed for
general-purpose client apps, where your major performance problems are hitting
the filesystem and/or database server.
I should add that I don't think that VB is the wrong answer in every
case, but it shouldn't be the default answer. I've used it on personal
projects where it has made sense, but I use it when I have to make
applications that are simple, single-threaded (ooh, don't even get me
started on coding multiple threads), usually database-intensive, and
mundane. Anything out of the ordinary on VB means you're going to have a
headache.
I think we can both, for the most part, agree on this one, although I'll take
exception to the "mundane" aspects. You can create fabulous-looking apps,
you just have to sweat the details. Microsoft Money is a good example - it
certainly doesn't look like a VB6 app stuffing data into an Access.MDB, but
that's exactly what it is. Giant Antispyware/Windows Defender was (until
defender beta 2) also written in VB6, but I'm not gonna stand here and tell you
that was the best plan.
Still, it's a shame MS killed off VB. Maybe with a few more revisions,
VB.Net will provide the same ease of development as "classic" VB, and with a
decent framework instead of the "leap into the unknown" that you always had when
you went out of the VB sandbox.
As you and others have mentioned, the most compelling reason not to use VB6
is that it has been end-of-lifed. Most of your other issues have
workarounds, though.
The VB6 language supports a feature where you can implement an
interface, similar to Java or C# interfaces, or C++ pure virtual functions.
It does not, however, support a method to inherit methods from another class
Okay, well this one doesn't really have a workaround other than writing reams
of hookup code - this is a limitation of COM, and VB was (eventually) written to
be a top-notch COM development system. In my experience, building hugely
interdependent object models is unnecessary for nearly all client applications, which is usually what you're building with VB6.
More advanced features of the Windows API require you to copy and
paste large bits of function and constant declarations into your code
I use the Windows API type library originally developed by Bruce McKinney.
One reference added to your project and thousands of Win32 functions, constants,
and structures are available. The compiler will only add in the items you
use to your executable, so you're not linking in the full ~750K of declarations.
There are some holes (there's hardly anything in there for the win32 common
controls), but an awful lot of stuff is available without any copy/paste work.
There is also all kinds of problems with passing pointers to structs,
since you can't get a pointer in VB6. I.e. often, many window procedures
require a struct with a pointer to another struct
Yeah, a struct with a pointer to another struct can be a pain - but again,
that's a pretty rare item. It's easy enough to pass structures directly to
the API - you just need to be careful about how you declare your API calls.
if you try to run the application in the IDE while you've got a custom
message handler set up for a window, then the moment you hit "Stop" to end
execution, the whole IDE crashes
Use a subclassing OCX or DLL (write your own using the AddressOf operator, or
go find any of the dozen that are out there), and this problem will go away,
assuming your subclassing component has the brains to automatically detach
itself from the WndProc when it sees a WM_CLOSE or WM_NCDESTROY message.
Mine does.
[it's] difficult to debug a VB application. If you've ever looked at
the assembly output of the compiler
I haven't. I can't imagine why I would. Frankly, I can't imagine
looking at the assembly output of some JITted Java piece, or a C++/MFC app, or
damn near anything other than assembler, or (maybe) hand-tuned C. VB6 has
got a great debugger that allows you to inspect and modify any variable and
execute program functions on the fly.
Get the Numega tools (if they still have a version for VB6) if you really
want to do profiling, static code analysis, or whatever else you don't feel you
get from the VB6 IDE.
VB is really slow. [...] For example, I wrote an MD5 algorithm in VB
Yeah, VB isn't really the place for this, even with the build settings
optimized. You did set "fast native code", "optimize for ppro", and all of
the advanced optimization checks, right?
I am little surprised that you saw an order of magnitude difference.
Native code generated from VB6 is run through the same second-pass compiler
(C2.EXE) that Visual C++ 6 used, and the linker is identical. Benchmarks
on computationally intensive stuff (that I've seen) usually showed a 40-50%
performance penalty for VB6, rather than the 1000% you're talking about.
Were it absolutely critical, you could've written your own C2 stub that passed
the object files along to the MS C2 and set any or all of the C2 flags you were
looking for.
The police investigation determined that it was a hunting accident. The victim declined to press charges. Look - I'm no fan of the veep, but again, this was a hunting accident. This kind of thing happens when you get inexperienced people running around with guns trying to shoot things.
Randy Duke steals millions, hes ok
Actually, Duke Cunningham got 8 years, 4 months in prison, is required to pay a 1.8 million dollar fine, and has to give up all his booty. When he gets out, his career is over. He'll be lucky to be a shift manager at a Dairy Queen.
Bill ORielly the moron, lies to death and its ok
Well, yeah - but it's not a crime to lie, even on television. Or the Internet, for that matter.
teh problem with ur exampel (why its a bad one) isnt the no punctuaion its tahat its a coherant paragrafh. u need top mix it up some and also maek some speeling errors and also too thiungs that dont go together shuold be their.
What would you use the front windsheild piece on the TIE fighter model for other than a tie fighter?
How about the background window for the Emperor's room in Return of the Jedi?
Re:Only new feature I care about
on
Office 12 Exposed
·
· Score: 3, Informative
can go Paste Special -> Unformatted text, but I want it by default when I hit Ctrl-V
You can change the shortcut keys so that Ctrl-V points to Paste Special... instead of Paste. Go to Tools|Customize..., then select the Keyboard... button to display the Customize Keyboard dialog. Select Edit from the Categories list on the left side of the dialog, then select EditPasteSpecial in the Commands list on the right hand side. Switch focus to the Press new shortcut key textbox, and press Ctrl+V. Note that the dialog shows that this key sequence is currently assigned to EditPaste. Choose Assign, then close both the Customize Keyboard and the Customize dialogs.
You'll still get the Paste Special dialog, but focus is set to the format options list, and if you press U, then return, you will select Unformatted Text (or, in the worst case, Unformatted Unicode Text) and have the text pasted.
It's not as good as a simple Ctrl-V, but Ctrl-V, U, <CR> is a bit easier than switching to the mouse. Of course, you could skip this whole thing and do Alt-E, S, U, <CR>; but you already knew that.
Bible conspiracy theory - this is a bit of a stretch, but should help to point out some differences between various "mainstream" (for some definitions of mainstream) sects.
Bingo. Look, Steve Jobs already tried the software-only route with NeXT. And we can see where that got him.
I, for one, am looking forward to X86 Macs - because I want the hardware. I've known for years that Apple can make a great box, but I have neither the room nor the inclination to stick a Mac next to my Wintel stuff. If I can put Windows on Apple hardware (hey - I'm a Win32 developer), and have it supported, my next box will be a Mac, whether or not I do much with OSX.
Nine in 11 years ('69 to '80). I'll call it 12 years if you agree to count
Coda, so it's 10 in 12. And yeah, there's a 2-disc live album in
there, but Physical Graffiti is two disks, too.
It looks to me like they're ignoring it. The background graphic is a little more tightly integerated into the look-and-feel than you'd normally expect, and that's why it seems "fscked up".
I hate large fonts. It's an evilness that should've been removed when we all made the 32-bit leap. I'm hoping that MS will finally kill it off in Longhorn, since the new DCE should do a good job of magnification on LCDs and other fixed resolution screens.
It's still new (took a year), but they do have some industry support, such as Sonic MyDVD.
Bah.
Sonic does a lot of OEM deals -- this isn't an issue of "getting support", this is TiVo going to an OEM software manufacturer and giving them a (relatively small) chunk of cash to provide the features they need.
What I don't understand is why Sonic's software won't be out until later in Q1. Did TiVo's format keep changing, did they save money by having Sonic take their sweet time, or are the TiVo guys total geniuses so it took Sonic a long time to come up to speed on the details?
Here's a task; delete all files containing the word "flibble" in a directory.
Okay, here's a task: delete all files containing the word "flibble" that are not refering to the "flibble meeting" you were in last week with Jane, Joe, and John, in all directories under your home directory on your local box, your personal backup directory on the network, your department's shared resources directory, and the network directory for the most recent project you've been working on.
5, incidentally, is so bad that most of us write it off as not having existed in the first place. I think one trekkie described it best when he said "Kirk and god compare egos, god loses."
I've always thought of it as a two parter: Kirk, Spock, and McCoy go camping in part 1; then it's a remake of the "Space Hippies" episode, but without the good music. (Herbert!)
What to make of
Down and Out in
the Magic Kingdom, the first novel by Cory Doctorow, dot-com survivor,
inveterate blogger, and now, outreach coordinator of the Electronic Frontier
Foundation? Part organizational-intrigue novel, part post-apocalyptic sci-fi,
and part Swiftian satire of the tech mentality, revolutionary impulses, and
Disney itself, the book has acquired quite a bit of notice, at least in part for
its bold use of the Net.
Having just finished the book, I can tell you what to make of it: A
poor ripoff of John
Varley'sThe
Phantom of Kansas with karma added. Oh, and whereas Varley managed to
pack his ideas into a well-paced short story, this one dragged out for 208 pages
as it subjected us to Disney technical minutiae on the way to a disappointing
resolution.
At least I found out how the ghost hall works in the Haunted Mansion.
Slashdot Mirror
Usability.
You're likely a Baby Boomer (born 1946 through 1964). If you're older, you're probably a member of the Silent Generation.
I bought my Series 1, a Sony SVR-2000, from Sound Advice (a Tweeter company). Bought my Series 2 from Crutchfield. I bought the Series3 from the TiVo Community store—they had the best price at the time.
There are two CableCard slots in the back, one for each tuner. You plug your coaxial cable from the wall into the back of the unit, and stick the Cablecards in the slots. Cable company authorizes the cards, and you're good to go. My cable company (Brighthouse Central Florida) had to come out to plug the cards in and authorize them, but there was no charge, and the whole thing took about 15 minutes.
If you want HD, you need the Series3. I bought mine for $680. The TiVo Community store has 'em for $619, and you may be able to find 'em cheaper.
Lemme help, then.
Tivo does. Sort by show or date/time recorded. Also groups related shows together into a folder (e.g., "Doctor Who - 5 episodes"). Series 3 also puts all HD shows in another folder.
Tivo doesn't offer RAID. It's pretty easy to stick a second (or replace your original with a larger) drive. Series 2 (non-HD) does allow transfers back and forth from your computer, so you can store 'em on your own RAID, tape backup, DVD-ROM, or what have you. Series 3 doesn't have this; it appears to be a legal issue getting worked out with Cable Labs. You'll probably see the same thing on any new device with a CableCard in it.
Tivo's got one, too.
My Tivo's uptime is measured in months/years. It reboots itself when new updates are available. It does this at 2:00 AM and hasn't missed a show yet. In the 7 years that I've had a Tivo (Series 1/2/3), I've forced a reboot *once*.
Tivo is an incredibly easy to use, rock solid (hey, it's running Linux) unit. Look, if you're happy tinkering with the thing, more power to ya. As for me, I turn the TV on when I'm done working, the kids are in bed, and I'm looking to unwind. I've got enough between work and my own side projects--I don't need to be messing with the TV, too.
One other point (and you may have had a solid Myth system for long enough to see this): When you get a device like a Tivo that is stable, simple to use, and works every time, things change. It becomes a new tool that transforms how you do things. I can't imagine watching TV without Tivo--it's that different (and that much better) than plain-old service. I skip commercials (but fast-forward through them so I can catch new show announcements or the occasional ad that is amusing the first time you see it). I watch shows on "Tivo time," skipping through the boring parts. I fast forward to the end of the remodeling show so I can see the results without all the witty banter. I check out old shows I haven't seen in years because Tivo had space and nothing better to do than record it. I don't worry about when seasonal shows are on (like the Peanuts ones)--Tivo catches them for me.
If you like watching TV, and you don't have this kind of experience, you should get a Tivo.
Here ya go.
Well, it's obviously been a long time since you looked, or you didn't look very hard. The TweakUI "powertoy" from Microsoft (link is to Google since there are a couple of different versions) has allowed you to specify what MS calls special folder locations -- like your $HOME directory -- since at least Windows 98.
I've been storing my desktop, shortcuts, documents, etc. on a separate partition for the past several years. Some folders (like My Documents) can be "moved" by drag-and-drop or by right-clicking, but I've gotten used to the TweakUI route.
Like Linux, Windows can do what you need if you're interested enough to find out what's already out there.
Some better simplified math:
There are places that sell CDs all over the country. They manage to make a profit by selling a CD with roughly 500MB of data for $17, including:
So although a car may not be the most efficient form of surface transportation, ground shipping can be pretty cost effective. And increase the bandwith by a factor of 30 if we're talking about a semi full of 2-disk Special Edition DVDs.
I don't understand why someone would have a problem with a development mode only dependency (it's not like you have to ship it), but I feel your pain.
That was the only thing I could think of when I wrote my original message. It is definitely ugly. The pIDL stuff for fetching shell info (application/file icon, context menu verbs, etc.) is also ugly, but I'll admit I'm too ignorant (and too lazy to go dig though my source) to know if that stuff has the same issue, or just something similar.
Sounds a little extreme to me. Half-split troubleshooting would've found both of those issues.
All I meant to say was that the benchmarks I've seen indicated a much smaller difference in code performance. VB6 is not the best way to do tight numerical algorithms, and I guess I'm not too surprised that an MD5 checksum calculation takes a bit longer. Certainly, the tool is designed for general-purpose client apps, where your major performance problems are hitting the filesystem and/or database server.
I think we can both, for the most part, agree on this one, although I'll take exception to the "mundane" aspects. You can create fabulous-looking apps, you just have to sweat the details. Microsoft Money is a good example - it certainly doesn't look like a VB6 app stuffing data into an Access .MDB, but
that's exactly what it is. Giant Antispyware/Windows Defender was (until
defender beta 2) also written in VB6, but I'm not gonna stand here and tell you
that was the best plan.
Still, it's a shame MS killed off VB. Maybe with a few more revisions, VB.Net will provide the same ease of development as "classic" VB, and with a decent framework instead of the "leap into the unknown" that you always had when you went out of the VB sandbox.
As you and others have mentioned, the most compelling reason not to use VB6 is that it has been end-of-lifed. Most of your other issues have workarounds, though.
Okay, well this one doesn't really have a workaround other than writing reams of hookup code - this is a limitation of COM, and VB was (eventually) written to be a top-notch COM development system. In my experience, building hugely interdependent object models is unnecessary for nearly all client applications, which is usually what you're building with VB6.
I use the Windows API type library originally developed by Bruce McKinney. One reference added to your project and thousands of Win32 functions, constants, and structures are available. The compiler will only add in the items you use to your executable, so you're not linking in the full ~750K of declarations.
There are some holes (there's hardly anything in there for the win32 common controls), but an awful lot of stuff is available without any copy/paste work.
Yeah, a struct with a pointer to another struct can be a pain - but again, that's a pretty rare item. It's easy enough to pass structures directly to the API - you just need to be careful about how you declare your API calls.
Use a subclassing OCX or DLL (write your own using the AddressOf operator, or go find any of the dozen that are out there), and this problem will go away, assuming your subclassing component has the brains to automatically detach itself from the WndProc when it sees a WM_CLOSE or WM_NCDESTROY message. Mine does.
I haven't. I can't imagine why I would. Frankly, I can't imagine looking at the assembly output of some JITted Java piece, or a C++/MFC app, or damn near anything other than assembler, or (maybe) hand-tuned C. VB6 has got a great debugger that allows you to inspect and modify any variable and execute program functions on the fly.
Get the Numega tools (if they still have a version for VB6) if you really want to do profiling, static code analysis, or whatever else you don't feel you get from the VB6 IDE.
Yeah, VB isn't really the place for this, even with the build settings optimized. You did set "fast native code", "optimize for ppro", and all of the advanced optimization checks, right?
I am little surprised that you saw an order of magnitude difference. Native code generated from VB6 is run through the same second-pass compiler (C2.EXE) that Visual C++ 6 used, and the linker is identical. Benchmarks on computationally intensive stuff (that I've seen) usually showed a 40-50% performance penalty for VB6, rather than the 1000% you're talking about. Were it absolutely critical, you could've written your own C2 stub that passed the object files along to the MS C2 and set any or all of the C2 flags you were looking for.
that one is only to protect Mc Donalds against frivolous lawsuits.
Oh, Lord - not again. Please educate yourself. You need to find a better example of a frivolous lawsuit.
Dick Chaney shot someone
The police investigation determined that it was a hunting accident. The victim declined to press charges. Look - I'm no fan of the veep, but again, this was a hunting accident. This kind of thing happens when you get inexperienced people running around with guns trying to shoot things.
Randy Duke steals millions, hes ok
Actually, Duke Cunningham got 8 years, 4 months in prison, is required to pay a 1.8 million dollar fine, and has to give up all his booty. When he gets out, his career is over. He'll be lucky to be a shift manager at a Dairy Queen.
Bill ORielly the moron, lies to death and its ok
Well, yeah - but it's not a crime to lie, even on television. Or the Internet, for that matter.
teh problem with ur exampel (why its a bad one) isnt the no punctuaion its tahat its a coherant paragrafh. u need top mix it up some and also maek some speeling errors and also too thiungs that dont go together shuold be their.
What would you use the front windsheild piece on the TIE fighter model for other than a tie fighter?
How about the background window for the Emperor's room in Return of the Jedi?
You can change the shortcut keys so that Ctrl-V points to Paste Special... instead of Paste. Go to Tools|Customize..., then select the Keyboard... button to display the Customize Keyboard dialog. Select Edit from the Categories list on the left side of the dialog, then select EditPasteSpecial in the Commands list on the right hand side. Switch focus to the Press new shortcut key textbox, and press Ctrl+V. Note that the dialog shows that this key sequence is currently assigned to EditPaste. Choose Assign, then close both the Customize Keyboard and the Customize dialogs.
You'll still get the Paste Special dialog, but focus is set to the format options list, and if you press U, then return, you will select Unformatted Text (or, in the worst case, Unformatted Unicode Text) and have the text pasted.
It's not as good as a simple Ctrl-V, but Ctrl-V, U, <CR> is a bit easier than switching to the mouse. Of course, you could skip this whole thing and do Alt-E, S, U, <CR>; but you already knew that.
Please provide citations for this claim.
A few minutes at wikipedia turned up:
Bingo. Look, Steve Jobs already tried the software-only route with NeXT. And we can see where that got him.
I, for one, am looking forward to X86 Macs - because I want the hardware. I've known for years that Apple can make a great box, but I have neither the room nor the inclination to stick a Mac next to my Wintel stuff. If I can put Windows on Apple hardware (hey - I'm a Win32 developer), and have it supported, my next box will be a Mac, whether or not I do much with OSX.
Nine in 11 years ('69 to '80). I'll call it 12 years if you agree to count Coda, so it's 10 in 12. And yeah, there's a 2-disc live album in there, but Physical Graffiti is two disks, too.
And not a bad disk in the bunch.
And every disk has its own unique sound.
Jesus, MOD PARENT UP - this is exactly what the problem is.
It looks to me like they're ignoring it. The background graphic is a little more tightly integerated into the look-and-feel than you'd normally expect, and that's why it seems "fscked up".
I hate large fonts. It's an evilness that should've been removed when we all made the 32-bit leap. I'm hoping that MS will finally kill it off in Longhorn, since the new DCE should do a good job of magnification on LCDs and other fixed resolution screens.
Bah.
Sonic does a lot of OEM deals -- this isn't an issue of "getting support", this is TiVo going to an OEM software manufacturer and giving them a (relatively small) chunk of cash to provide the features they need.
What I don't understand is why Sonic's software won't be out until later in Q1. Did TiVo's format keep changing, did they save money by having Sonic take their sweet time, or are the TiVo guys total geniuses so it took Sonic a long time to come up to speed on the details?
Here's a task; delete all files containing the word "flibble" in a directory.
Okay, here's a task: delete all files containing the word "flibble" that are not refering to the "flibble meeting" you were in last week with Jane, Joe, and John, in all directories under your home directory on your local box, your personal backup directory on the network, your department's shared resources directory, and the network directory for the most recent project you've been working on.
I've always thought of it as a two parter: Kirk, Spock, and McCoy go camping in part 1; then it's a remake of the "Space Hippies" episode, but without the good music. (Herbert!)
Actually, Eric Idle wrote the "Argument Clinic" sketch. I think it's the funniest thing they ever did and one of the funniest bits of comedy ever.
From the article:
Having just finished the book, I can tell you what to make of it: A poor ripoff of John Varley's The Phantom of Kansas with karma added. Oh, and whereas Varley managed to pack his ideas into a well-paced short story, this one dragged out for 208 pages as it subjected us to Disney technical minutiae on the way to a disappointing resolution.
At least I found out how the ghost hall works in the Haunted Mansion.