With the excitement around 2.5, it's easy to forget that Blender 2.49 still very much alive and kicking.
Still, 2.49 feels ancient, probably because it's UI is still kind of idiot-savant. It's horrendous at most things, but incredibly good at many things that matter. On top of that, it just looks very dated. 2.5 looks like it's on its way to cleaning most of that up while keeping the core strengths.
As for scriptability, I'd really love the see the Blender Foundation detach RNA to the point where one can start to create bindings in other languages, like Javascript, C# (Mono), etc.
I found the article pointless, actually. Of course people's names are far more complicated than the typical programmer realizes. I know that Chinese names are an issue (I'm Taiwanese, so I have one). But the DB systems I designed recently only need to be as good as what the credit card companies use, and only good enough for a user to login. There's just no point in pursuing someone else's incoherent sense of perfection.
A few things make a ~300 DPI LCD better than a 300 DPI laser printer:
1. Pixels are perfectly ordered, with a less error than a print head.
(though there is still some "error" due to the subpixel layout) 2. Because there are actually 3 subpixels, ClearType-style rendering has the potential to be that much better. 3. Even without ClearType-style rendering, pixel antialiasing is something most laser printers don't do.
Backwards compatibility? You mean, like how Windows Mobile inherited the incredible amount of cruft in Win32 even though compatibility is already out the door?
Microsoft just never quite understood its developer base as well as it should have. For decades, they kept API's incredibly archaic and unchanging because they fear abandonment. They were scared to death of putting out a brand new OS because they fear abandonment. That fear drove their decision making process.
So, it must have shocked them greatly that so many Windows developers just went ahead and wrote a ton of brand new code for iPhone. Like, 100,000 apps worth of code.
They never got it - developers *like* to write code. Just give them decent something to write *for*.
Some use cases off the top of my head: - Let me know when I've come into the vicinity of a historical landmark - Synchronize my media from the cloud onto my device in the background (over, say, 3G) - To always feel rich by knowing that I Am Rich is still running in the background.
I think Apple should use a bytecode execution engine and explicitly timeslice jobs. They could modify LUA or Python, providing bindings to a limited, safe set of native API calls (or safe wrappers to them).
Then, iPhone app developers would have the option of providing an explicit LUA/Python/whatever script as part of their app. The only promise Apple would make is that the script would not be guaranteed to run quickly.
The scheduling could be something simple like this: - Give each script its own small heap, stack, and VM state - For each script, execute its bytecode for up to 20 milliseconds (or some dynamic value based on load) - After all scripts have executed their timeslice, sleep for 1 second. - Start again
Having a ton of background processes from a ton of different apps could cause starvation, but that would happen in a much worse way with unconstrained multitasking.
Really? Even though they are inside the actual treads and not on the ground-facing surface of the tire? I would think water would flow through the treads better and thus prevent that.
Certainly the inside of treads also get their share of weathering. However, it would remain to be seen if this material could withstand those conditions. Especially since the composition itself is flexible and using more hardy compounds would be an option.
I'm sure the uses are limitless, but one thing I wonder is what would happen to a car's traction through puddles if you put this material in the treads of tires?
Actually, the whole Design Patterns thing is pretty silly. Programming is the only profession where someone writes a book where each chapter is like, "Something *reads* while something *writes* and it's called a reader/writer design pattern. Genius!!"
Given how many crappy programs there are that crash because the author decided to code up buggy versions of library code, I'd say programming is alive and well.
From TFA: "Western Digital believes the technology will prove useful in the future and it's true that after thirty years, the 512 byte sector standard was creaking with age."
What does "creaking with age" really mean? I mean, the current format performs the same. The basic design is still the same, just with different magic numbers. I usually read "creaking with age" to mean that there's some kind of capacity or speed limit that we hit, but that's not the case. Is this more of a case of "why not" change it instead of "why"?
Software is one of those industries that chews up and spits people out. What software engineers do is no less complex than what most other engineers do. We use the theory we studied, combine it with real world knowledge and experience, and produce product. The sucky engineers get weeded out as in any industry. Why, then, do so many competent engineers find it so hard to retire? $100k just doesn't go very far. We usually have no pension plan. Health care costs are already mentioned. And we face increasing (and unprovable) age discrimination as we hit our late 40's. Either you're a software engineering director by 55 or you're working at Best Buy.
Now, try living in the Bay Area or similar region where getting a decent house is $700k+. That makes your mortgage like $4,000/mo. You bring home like $10,000/mo. After state+federal+other takes 40+% of that, forget saving enough for retirement. Better hope your company gets acquired by Google by the time you turn 45.
I bristle at anyone who thinks software engineers are rich yuppies.
For a good ASP.NET host, DiscountASP.net has really served me well. They have little downtime, always actively upgrade to the latest that Microsoft has to offer, have reasonably responsive support, and their prices are reasonable (but not rock bottom). Their current SQL Server 2008 deal is pretty good: $10/mo for 500MB of SQL Server space. Finally, I find their accounting of space and bandwidth to be honest and accurate.
I agree, and it's amazing to me that all this hubbub doesn't surface around other areas where this is happening. OS's are using the GPU more both for UI and accelerating computing-intensive tasks. They use unused network bandwidth to trickle down updates and other resources from the Internet.
I suppose people will bitch if an OS uses idle time on one of 3 unused CPU cores? Or recording video of you while you're not using your webcam?
Slashdot Mirror
With the excitement around 2.5, it's easy to forget that Blender 2.49 still very much alive and kicking.
Still, 2.49 feels ancient, probably because it's UI is still kind of idiot-savant. It's horrendous at most things, but incredibly good at many things that matter. On top of that, it just looks very dated. 2.5 looks like it's on its way to cleaning most of that up while keeping the core strengths.
As for scriptability, I'd really love the see the Blender Foundation detach RNA to the point where one can start to create bindings in other languages, like Javascript, C# (Mono), etc.
To save $99 per year, I want to renew my iPhone App development license with a gun.
This is great! Now we can have far quicker access to dinosaur bones without high latency.
I found the article pointless, actually. Of course people's names are far more complicated than the typical programmer realizes. I know that Chinese names are an issue (I'm Taiwanese, so I have one). But the DB systems I designed recently only need to be as good as what the credit card companies use, and only good enough for a user to login. There's just no point in pursuing someone else's incoherent sense of perfection.
A few things make a ~300 DPI LCD better than a 300 DPI laser printer:
1. Pixels are perfectly ordered, with a less error than a print head.
(though there is still some "error" due to the subpixel layout)
2. Because there are actually 3 subpixels, ClearType-style rendering has the potential to be that much better.
3. Even without ClearType-style rendering, pixel antialiasing is something most laser printers don't do.
Good news for Obama and his vision for private industry servicing the ISS. Hopefully they won't delay their first ISS mission until 2011.
Backwards compatibility? You mean, like how Windows Mobile inherited the incredible amount of cruft in Win32 even though compatibility is already out the door?
Microsoft just never quite understood its developer base as well as it should have. For decades, they kept API's incredibly archaic and unchanging because they fear abandonment. They were scared to death of putting out a brand new OS because they fear abandonment. That fear drove their decision making process.
So, it must have shocked them greatly that so many Windows developers just went ahead and wrote a ton of brand new code for iPhone. Like, 100,000 apps worth of code.
They never got it - developers *like* to write code. Just give them decent something to write *for*.
I just went ahead an stole an iPad, and *then* jailbroke it.
I'd just fill the selection with stars, hydrogen dust, and asteroids. That is, after all, contextual to everything and is never completely wrong.
You notice your lunar rover is missing.
GUARDS!!
*whack*
Some use cases off the top of my head:
- Let me know when I've come into the vicinity of a historical landmark
- Synchronize my media from the cloud onto my device in the background (over, say, 3G)
- To always feel rich by knowing that I Am Rich is still running in the background.
I think Apple should use a bytecode execution engine and explicitly timeslice jobs. They could modify LUA or Python, providing bindings to a limited, safe set of native API calls (or safe wrappers to them).
Then, iPhone app developers would have the option of providing an explicit LUA/Python/whatever script as part of their app. The only promise Apple would make is that the script would not be guaranteed to run quickly.
The scheduling could be something simple like this:
- Give each script its own small heap, stack, and VM state
- For each script, execute its bytecode for up to 20 milliseconds (or some dynamic value based on load)
- After all scripts have executed their timeslice, sleep for 1 second.
- Start again
Having a ton of background processes from a ton of different apps could cause starvation, but that would happen in a much worse way with unconstrained multitasking.
They don't want mouse clicks in the same event queue as disk and network I/O.
Source on this, please.
Really? Even though they are inside the actual treads and not on the ground-facing surface of the tire? I would think water would flow through the treads better and thus prevent that.
Certainly the inside of treads also get their share of weathering. However, it would remain to be seen if this material could withstand those conditions. Especially since the composition itself is flexible and using more hardy compounds would be an option.
I'm sure the uses are limitless, but one thing I wonder is what would happen to a car's traction through puddles if you put this material in the treads of tires?
Actually, the whole Design Patterns thing is pretty silly. Programming is the only profession where someone writes a book where each chapter is like, "Something *reads* while something *writes* and it's called a reader/writer design pattern. Genius!!"
Given how many crappy programs there are that crash because the author decided to code up buggy versions of library code, I'd say programming is alive and well.
Pity - Monty Python would have had a field day with this.
I think if everyone in the world stands up and raises their arms for 10 seconds once per year, we can compensate for this.
From TFA: "Western Digital believes the technology will prove useful in the future and it's true that after thirty years, the 512 byte sector standard was creaking with age."
What does "creaking with age" really mean? I mean, the current format performs the same. The basic design is still the same, just with different magic numbers. I usually read "creaking with age" to mean that there's some kind of capacity or speed limit that we hit, but that's not the case. Is this more of a case of "why not" change it instead of "why"?
Software is one of those industries that chews up and spits people out. What software engineers do is no less complex than what most other engineers do. We use the theory we studied, combine it with real world knowledge and experience, and produce product. The sucky engineers get weeded out as in any industry. Why, then, do so many competent engineers find it so hard to retire? $100k just doesn't go very far. We usually have no pension plan. Health care costs are already mentioned. And we face increasing (and unprovable) age discrimination as we hit our late 40's. Either you're a software engineering director by 55 or you're working at Best Buy.
Now, try living in the Bay Area or similar region where getting a decent house is $700k+. That makes your mortgage like $4,000/mo. You bring home like $10,000/mo. After state+federal+other takes 40+% of that, forget saving enough for retirement. Better hope your company gets acquired by Google by the time you turn 45.
I bristle at anyone who thinks software engineers are rich yuppies.
For a good ASP.NET host, DiscountASP.net has really served me well. They have little downtime, always actively upgrade to the latest that Microsoft has to offer, have reasonably responsive support, and their prices are reasonable (but not rock bottom). Their current SQL Server 2008 deal is pretty good: $10/mo for 500MB of SQL Server space. Finally, I find their accounting of space and bandwidth to be honest and accurate.
I agree, and it's amazing to me that all this hubbub doesn't surface around other areas where this is happening. OS's are using the GPU more both for UI and accelerating computing-intensive tasks. They use unused network bandwidth to trickle down updates and other resources from the Internet.
I suppose people will bitch if an OS uses idle time on one of 3 unused CPU cores? Or recording video of you while you're not using your webcam?
Oh wait, strike that last one.