And while I would not exactly say I am doing good in his class at this point, I am learning and just plain realizing things that I should have learned eons ago. The problem was that it was always more convenient to mash the keys on a calculator than to just think.
I couldn't agree more. Calculators are great, but we need to start using them after we've mastered the old-fashioned way rather than instead of mastering the old-fashioned way.
A few years ago, I studied for and took the MCAT (the test required to get into med school). There's a lot of math in the various science problems (physics, p-chem, o-chem, biology) and you MUST do it on paper. No calculators allowed. I approve!
I bought a GameCube a few months ago and love it. They've got a broadband adapter, but only one online game so far: Fantasy Star Online.
XBox developers and Microsoft have embraced online gaming as a big piece of the future of console gaming. Nintendo still needs to come around. I'm hoping that catch up (I think Microsoft & Co. are right!)
IE is still the dominant browser, because Windows is the dominant desktop platform.
IE is dominant not so much because Windows is dominant as because it comes pre-installed with Windows. Most end users don't know there's a choice, much less that IE might not be the best choice.
OEMs (e.g. Dell, HPQ, etc...) need to pre-install one or more alternatives to IE on new PCs (not likely to happen w/o Microsoft striking back). This goes to the heart of the anti-trust case -- using one monopoly to get another.
It seems a lot of people want to see America become America(tm).
The notion that business-people (successful or otherwise) are assumed to be able to take their skills into the politial arena is ridiculous to me. Goverment and business have very little to do with one another; their goals are often at odds. Citizens are not shareholders. Government isn't about profit.
I have a lot of Sony A/V equipment. The last piece I bought -- a cheap VCR -- is definitely NOT of the same quality as my other Sony components. OTOH, it was REALLY CHEAP. It was made for Sony (via license) in China. The new VCR is pretty lightweight and flimsy, not the rock-solid feel of my 15-year-old Sony carosel CD player.
Sony componenets used to be all audiophile-quality. They built their brand on that reputation, but eventually decided that they'd like to own the lower-end market as well. No problems, there. In my experience, you get what you pay for. Sony still makes VCRs that cost several times what my cheap one cost and I'm sure they're great.
I've seen the same thing in other industries. When I was in high school (early 1980s), I really wanted a Fender Stratocaster. Fender was making high-end pro instruments then and the cheapest Strat cost $1500. Now, they still make the $1500 one, but have a whole line of Mexican-made $299 Stratocasters. They've taken their high-end brand to the low-end.
I doubt that he negotiated this arragement upon his leaving. He more likely arranged it long ago, when his future value to the company outweighed the potential value of his contributions.
This does seem unusual (and not just for Microsoft). He had to have hammered this out long before his creations spawned a cash-cow like Word.
I'm having no problems at all with Enigmail, GPG and Mozilla. It "just worked". It's as easy to use as the PGP Eudora plug-in. Just type in your passphrase when prompted and the rest is done for you.
I lived in England in 2001 and many restaurants post "No GM Food" signs, indicating that they use no genetically-modified food. For some Brits (and other Europeans) it's a big deal.
I used to work in an entirely-NeXT office. The NeXT keyboards were fantastic. They were heavy and had really great tactile key action -- without the loud clicking of the old IBMs. Unfortunately, they only worked on the NeXTs.
You can easily find DEC Personal Work Stations (PWS) in 433, 500 and 600MHz speeds for cheap on ebay (they're also known as "Miatas"). These machines are common. I got mine for under $600 a few years ago and it's been great as a workstation and a server.
That and my awesome digital Server 3300R (a rack-mount 400MHz hot-swap alpha I got for $600 on ebay) have run SuSE, Red Hat and are now happily running the latest FreeBSD.
Thanks to our myopic and narcissistic media and opportunistic, short-sighted politicians...
Here's where I stopped reading.
I'm all for media- and politician-bashing, but the media is myopic and narcissistic because the public demands it. Americans, in general, can keep focused on important issues only until the next time Britney Spears's belly button appears on TV.
Opportunistic, short-sighted politicians?? Put in office by opportunistic, short-sighted voters who are likely very happy with their choice, thank you.
Stop blaming the symptoms, start focusing on the disease.
This is known as the McClintock Effect. It has nothing to do with mice and everything to do with women living together in college dormitories (how the effect was discovered). Here's an interesting looking paper on it: Pheromones: The Smell of Beauty on it from 1997.
I agree completely. It's hard to imagine the huge parts of the world that don't have access to computer [gasp!], telephones, running water, etc... We're lucky to have these (and many other) things in a world where may others are no so lucky.
So we're not immediately facing the prospect of watching athletes bred especially for their performance...
Do you think we've never seen athletes specifically bred for performance? What do you think the Soviet and Chinese state athletic systems have been doing for decades? Of course, they're not genetically altered for perfomance, but I'm sure some have been bred as carefully as lab mice.
This is exactly the same issue with Bluetooth and 802.11b. I've been waiting for Bluetooth to be reality for months, but hear how 802.11b is making it redundant. The power usage and range requirements of Bluetooth and 802.11b are completely different. They're really apples and oranges.
Bluetooth is meant to make serial/USB-style devices wireless. It's not a wireless networking protocol. Do you need Ethernet to connect your keyboard and mouse? NO!
Ah well, we'll see how it plays out in the market -- if Bluetooth ever gets a chance.
While I do believe that some people are not cut out for programming, anyone who's as persistent as you seem to have been should get there eventaully.
I tried again and again over the years to "get it" without much success. Eventually, I started getting results with Perl CGI.
I think the threshhold for programming can be very steep in some places (er... C++) and people can't even take baby steps. I found that to be the case for C programming in a Windows environment. I needed to get to the command line (whew!) and start simpler to get over the first hurdles. After that, no problem!
I like the O'Reilly "chipmunk" book: Practical C++ Programming, but I'll confess it didn't turn me into a C++ guy.
Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars. They go into great detail on the building and maintaining of space elevators, as well as a spectacular description of what happens when one comes down...
This excelent article addresses some of the same realities as the main article, and tries to shift focus to economic solutions. A VERY intersting read. I hope it happens, but I (and the author of this article) doubt it...
the whole idea behind nuking the moon strikes me as such a sad commentary on the Cold War that I had to post. The thinking behind this was such a pissing match it astounds me -- but here it is.
Sad Commentary? -- surely. Astouding? -- maybe you had to have been there.
I'm feeling like a dinosaur that I can actually remember the Cold War (the end of it, at least, I was born in 1965). I didn't realize until years later how much the Cold War mentality had shaped my childhood. For example, in high school I wrote the government for plans on how to build a nuclear bomb shelter (and got them!). I don't know what disturb me more: that I asked for them or that they sent them to me!
In recent years I've worked with people a decade or so younger than myself and have found that they lack that visceral, subconcious understanding of what it was like. It's the same odd feeling I still get when I hang out at the pool with my younger friends. They (born after the early 70's) don't have small-pox vaccination scars. It took me a while -- staring blankly at their left shoulders -- until I figured out what was missing.
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And while I would not exactly say I am doing good in his class at this point, I am learning and just plain realizing things that I should have learned eons ago. The problem was that it was always more convenient to mash the keys on a calculator than to just think.
I couldn't agree more. Calculators are great, but we need to start using them after we've mastered the old-fashioned way rather than instead of mastering the old-fashioned way.
A few years ago, I studied for and took the MCAT (the test required to get into med school). There's a lot of math in the various science problems (physics, p-chem, o-chem, biology) and you MUST do it on paper. No calculators allowed. I approve!
I bought a GameCube a few months ago and love it. They've got a broadband adapter, but only one online game so far: Fantasy Star Online.
XBox developers and Microsoft have embraced online gaming as a big piece of the future of console gaming. Nintendo still needs to come around. I'm hoping that catch up (I think Microsoft & Co. are right!)
The hardware's ready when they are!
IE is still the dominant browser, because Windows is the dominant desktop platform.
IE is dominant not so much because Windows is dominant as because it comes pre-installed with Windows. Most end users don't know there's a choice, much less that IE might not be the best choice.
OEMs (e.g. Dell, HPQ, etc...) need to pre-install one or more alternatives to IE on new PCs (not likely to happen w/o Microsoft striking back). This goes to the heart of the anti-trust case -- using one monopoly to get another.
This is manily a linux forum.. so us *bsd'ers are at a minority...
I agree that BSDers (like myself) are in the minority, but I'm not so sure about Slashdot being "mainly a linux forum." Of course, I could be wrong...
It seems a lot of people want to see America become America(tm).
The notion that business-people (successful or otherwise) are assumed to be able to take their skills into the politial arena is ridiculous to me. Goverment and business have very little to do with one another; their goals are often at odds. Citizens are not shareholders. Government isn't about profit.
I have a lot of Sony A/V equipment. The last piece I bought -- a cheap VCR -- is definitely NOT of the same quality as my other Sony components. OTOH, it was REALLY CHEAP. It was made for Sony (via license) in China. The new VCR is pretty lightweight and flimsy, not the rock-solid feel of my 15-year-old Sony carosel CD player.
Sony componenets used to be all audiophile-quality. They built their brand on that reputation, but eventually decided that they'd like to own the lower-end market as well. No problems, there. In my experience, you get what you pay for. Sony still makes VCRs that cost several times what my cheap one cost and I'm sure they're great.
I've seen the same thing in other industries. When I was in high school (early 1980s), I really wanted a Fender Stratocaster. Fender was making high-end pro instruments then and the cheapest Strat cost $1500. Now, they still make the $1500 one, but have a whole line of Mexican-made $299 Stratocasters. They've taken their high-end brand to the low-end.
I doubt that he negotiated this arragement upon his leaving. He more likely arranged it long ago, when his future value to the company outweighed the potential value of his contributions.
This does seem unusual (and not just for Microsoft). He had to have hammered this out long before his creations spawned a cash-cow like Word.
I'm having no problems at all with Enigmail, GPG and Mozilla. It "just worked". It's as easy to use as the PGP Eudora plug-in. Just type in your passphrase when prompted and the rest is done for you.
I lived in England in 2001 and many restaurants post "No GM Food" signs, indicating that they use no genetically-modified food. For some Brits (and other Europeans) it's a big deal.
I used to work in an entirely-NeXT office. The NeXT keyboards were fantastic. They were heavy and had really great tactile key action -- without the loud clicking of the old IBMs. Unfortunately, they only worked on the NeXTs.
You can easily find DEC Personal Work Stations (PWS) in 433, 500 and 600MHz speeds for cheap on ebay (they're also known as "Miatas"). These machines are common. I got mine for under $600 a few years ago and it's been great as a workstation and a server.
That and my awesome digital Server 3300R (a rack-mount 400MHz hot-swap alpha I got for $600 on ebay) have run SuSE, Red Hat and are now happily running the latest FreeBSD.
Stop complaining you can't affort it. YOU CAN!
No, but it'll be running NetBSD by Friday!
Thanks to our myopic and narcissistic media and opportunistic, short-sighted politicians...
Here's where I stopped reading.
I'm all for media- and politician-bashing, but the media is myopic and narcissistic because the public demands it. Americans, in general, can keep focused on important issues only until the next time Britney Spears's belly button appears on TV.
Opportunistic, short-sighted politicians?? Put in office by opportunistic, short-sighted voters who are likely very happy with their choice, thank you.
Stop blaming the symptoms, start focusing on the disease.
or he is going for an insaniy plea ..
Keep in mind there are two different sanity defenses:
1) being insane at the time of the act
2) being insane at the time of the trial
The first is about the defendant's state of mind when the act was committed (and is basically an admission of committing the act).
The second is about the defendant's ability to contribute to his/her own defense.
This is known as the McClintock Effect. It has nothing to do with mice and everything to do with women living together in college dormitories (how the effect was discovered). Here's an interesting looking paper on it: Pheromones: The Smell of Beauty on it from 1997.
It didn't get into what is the main day-to-day difference for me: the SysV vs. BSD startup/init configurations.
...Apple sues these guys.
I agree completely. It's hard to imagine the huge parts of the world that don't have access to computer [gasp!], telephones, running water, etc... We're lucky to have these (and many other) things in a world where may others are no so lucky.
So we're not immediately facing the prospect of watching athletes bred especially for their performance...
Do you think we've never seen athletes specifically bred for performance? What do you think the Soviet and Chinese state athletic systems have been doing for decades? Of course, they're not genetically altered for perfomance, but I'm sure some have been bred as carefully as lab mice.
This is exactly the same issue with Bluetooth and 802.11b. I've been waiting for Bluetooth to be reality for months, but hear how 802.11b is making it redundant. The power usage and range requirements of Bluetooth and 802.11b are completely different. They're really apples and oranges.
Bluetooth is meant to make serial/USB-style devices wireless. It's not a wireless networking protocol. Do you need Ethernet to connect your keyboard and mouse? NO!
Ah well, we'll see how it plays out in the market -- if Bluetooth ever gets a chance.
While I do believe that some people are not cut out for programming, anyone who's as persistent as you seem to have been should get there eventaully.
I tried again and again over the years to "get it" without much success. Eventually, I started getting results with Perl CGI.
I think the threshhold for programming can be very steep in some places (er... C++) and people can't even take baby steps. I found that to be the case for C programming in a Windows environment. I needed to get to the command line (whew!) and start simpler to get over the first hurdles. After that, no problem!
I like the O'Reilly "chipmunk" book: Practical C++ Programming, but I'll confess it didn't turn me into a C++ guy.
Good Luck! Don't give up.
I run Linux on my Alphas, because it's a bit more mature than FreeBSD, but my laptop and ix86 machines are all FreeBSD.
Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars. They go into great detail on the building and maintaining of space elevators, as well as a spectacular description of what happens when one comes down...
This excelent article addresses some of the same realities as the main article, and tries to shift focus to economic solutions. A VERY intersting read. I hope it happens, but I (and the author of this article) doubt it...
the whole idea behind nuking the moon strikes me as such a sad commentary on the Cold War that I had to post. The thinking behind this was such a pissing match it astounds me -- but here it is.
Sad Commentary? -- surely. Astouding? -- maybe you had to have been there.
I'm feeling like a dinosaur that I can actually remember the Cold War (the end of it, at least, I was born in 1965). I didn't realize until years later how much the Cold War mentality had shaped my childhood. For example, in high school I wrote the government for plans on how to build a nuclear bomb shelter (and got them!). I don't know what disturb me more: that I asked for them or that they sent them to me!
In recent years I've worked with people a decade or so younger than myself and have found that they lack that visceral, subconcious understanding of what it was like. It's the same odd feeling I still get when I hang out at the pool with my younger friends. They (born after the early 70's) don't have small-pox vaccination scars. It took me a while -- staring blankly at their left shoulders -- until I figured out what was missing.