Yes, in some respects, programming is becoming easier and more unqualified people are able to do it.
But I think that these guys are really missing the boat. The closer the programming environment can come to providing domain-relevant expression tools to the user, the better they will be able to create programs that fit their domain.
In addition, content these days is a form of programming. Whether it is HTML/CSS or word processing or spreadsheets, the distinct line between what is a program and what is pure data is blurred beyond recognition. So a programming language for interpretive dance would probably find the Natal very useful.
The Latin word Torino (the proper spelling of 'Turin') means "small crag" or "small cliff". Similar to Greek Sparta, this citystate was notorious for performing infanticide of small, weak, and handicapped children. These kids would be thrown off the cliffs to their deaths for no other crime than being genetically inferior.
Nowadays we are a bit more conscientious about how we treat the weakest among us, but to see Torinos standing up for weak kids is kind of ironic considering the city's bloody history.
Back before memory was cheap and RAM speeds were fast, we couldn't use a full 32 bits to represent a pixel on the screen. If you did that, even at VGA resolution, you'd end up with approximately 1.2MB of memory reserved just to render to the screen. Double that if you want to have an off-screen buffer to prepare the next frame. On systems that had 8MB of RAM in total you can probably sympathize with the graphics guys when they had to skimp on bpp.
Even until very recently, many image formats only used 24bpp. Seeing as there's no real need to go above and beyond 8 bits per color, you can save a full fourth of the total memory just cutting out the unnecessary byte. Of course, you lose something very important: the Alpha channel. Suddenly, the great cost savings you get with that extra saved byte mean little since your image now can't blend nicely with anything else.
Peak Oil was really just the beginning. If nuclear energy were to take off, we would be out of uranium before the first year was over. This points to a deadly flaw in the use of natural resources as the basis for energy sources. If you have to mine it, drill it, or harvest it, you will always run the risk of running out of it.
This is why there are only a handful truly renewable resources. Solar, for as long as we really need to care about, is going to be around forever. Fusion, if effectively harnessed, could provide a very good power source without the pollution of fission and the only input is hydrogen (or even heavier elements). Gravititic potential energy is another largely untapped resource. While some forms of this like dams and tidal generators have been developed, there is literally an unlimited amount of energy in the form of space-time bending due to gravity.
We're so far behind the energy resource curve that it is only a matter of time before we end up in the dark.
Apple and Microsoft attack the problem of user interface from two completely different points of view. Microsoft wants things to be orthogonal, logical, menu driven, hierarchical, and otherwise fully featured. Apple takes the approach that the user doesn't want to fuss with all sorts of menus and submenus (no two button mouse for years!) and just wants to do what they need as simply as possible. So you end up with two completely different interfaces.
Apple's interface is elegant but inflexible. Everything fits into the existing scheme and runs perfectly within that scheme.
Windows' interface is flexible but clumsy. While this has gotten much better in later versions, we're still looking at deeply nested menus, and applications which do not necessarily have any UI themes in common with each other.
However the key point is that Microsoft is gradually becoming more user-centric. As far as that goes in their own perspective. They are making changes to the OS that were implemented in Mac years ago, and now that they are here, they make Windows a better product.
Aesthetics is a major theme with Apple, and it is one that Microsoft hadn't fully embraced until Vista. Listen to the users. Let the users tell you what is good and bad. Build the interface to match the user.
In a sense, the MS employee was right. Microsoft is doing a lot to emulate Apple. And frankly, it's about time.
A Swede was caught and fined for speeding on the autobahn.
As Americans, we sometimes willfully ignore facts, as most Americans believe the Autobahn to be this magical road where speed limits don't exist and every can drive as fast as they want.
Our perspective is very narrow and insular, and that is one of our greatest weaknesses. Our willingness to quickly grab ahold of any negative story about China, Iran, or other "enemy" of ours is precisely the result of this lack of perspective.
So when we see a new site that is offering up movies for free, we are quick to cheer. We are quick to glom on to any sort of thing that we find even somewhat pleasing without fully understanding all the consequences. How will the movie companies make money from this type of site? Who is actually paying for the movies you see?
Yes, the commercials are played before the movie now, but as that becomes unprofitable where are they going to start putting them? What are we going to lose down the road?
We all want free access to premium content. Is the price worth it?
First you are presented with a very sparse page with a couple areas you can put your name and email address to "register".
Next, if you are so inclined, you enter your email address and name.
Then it says "Thanks for your interest in Voddler!"
Then you receive an email informing you that actually you didn't actually register since the site isn't actually open yet.
Thank you for showing an interest in Voddler! A beta version of Voddler is currently out and we will not add new members at this stage.
But have patience, the official Voddler will soon be released and your name and email will be saved until then. An invitation will find its way to your inbox when the time is right.
I suppose it was a good idea to use a throwaway account for this.
A clock has at least two hands depicting the hour and minute of the day. If stopped, it would appear that the clock is useless, but twice a day the clock tells the current time perfectly. What matters most is that you look at the clock at precisely those two moments to tell the time. Otherwise the tool just doesn't work as you'd expect it.
So when you take two tools that aren't very good, sometimes you end up with something that might be useful. But then again, just because you have two hands doesn't mean you're going to end up doing something useful. One hand could be occupied or paralyzed or otherwise out of commission. The other hand could be gimpy or not your favored hand or even cut off entirely if you lived in Saudi Arabia.
What I'm trying to say here is simply what you all are already thinking. Who is actually using Bing? Furthermore, who is actually using Alpha? These two useless hands working together just makes it easier to forget them both altogether.
Consider the time required to create either of those "solutions" though. The basalt quickly solidifies into its columnar shape while granite may take many multiple times that amount to become monolithic in the same scope.
Are there points of weakness in columnar basalt? Undoubtedly. But the rapid development and reasonable lifespan of these is a pretty good tradeoff.
Although Nature is random and haphazard in its designs, it still has to follow the laws of physics. So large structures like trees, termite hills, and basalt cliffs are structured to be very strong.
Structures that must hold their form like honeycombs and coral reefs have interesting geometric structures.
And things that must be flexible, lightweight, and resistant to breakage like spider webs use multiple methods of increasing tensile strength.
If they didn't, physics would force them to break. So for each iteration of Nature, you get some strong and some weak structures, but due to the constant barrage of forces only the most adaptable survive. If genetically controlled, these traits get passed down to subsequent generations.
Did the judge consider the possibility that the boy in question might be a momma's boy and deserved the online abuse? I find it hard to believe that this kid is well adjusted considering his mommy is willing to go to court to unmask his tormentors.
The worst part of this "invasion" is that the species isn't really tasty at all. Not to mention that every part of this particular jellyfish contains toxins. Every touching the top of the jellyfish will result in temporary numbness.
If they are proliferating because of a lack of predators, we should probably go ahead and kill as many of these as we can to maintain a good ecosystem balance.
The code in question seems to be called into scrutiny because the two areas of code bear the same name (ReadBytes) and operate similarly.
The longer you work in the development of software, the less magical it all becomes. The first time you plugged some code into a terminal and it worked, it seemed like an amazing amount of wizardry and behind-the-scenes stuff that you could never fully fathom. Compilers, binary code, arcane source languages, electronic signals. It's amazing to a neophyte just how much stuff is going on.
But the longer you plug away at it, the more you realize that it's just code. Nothing special is really going on. You're mostly moving data from one area of memory to another. It's almost a form of Nirvana once you reach this point.
So when someone comes along and says "OMG YOUR READBYTES METHOD IS JUST LIKE THIS ONE IN SOME GPL CODE!!!!11", it kind of pegs that person as someone who doesn't really have much experience with real programming. Sure, they may use a lot of tools, and know how to recompile their kernel, but they really don't have a firm grasp of what and why they are doing what they are doing.
You don't need to be a "reporter" to protect your sources. The attempt to pigeonhole a specific right to a specific type of profession is exactly the kind of intellectual manipulation that is going on in this country, and I'm sad to see it happening in the judiciary.
Take for example the idea that we need extra security for air travel. We argue about the limits of search and seizure, but we never argue whether such search and seizure is actually necessary.
Why should only reporters be allowed to conceal their sources? Why should only priests, lawyers, and doctors be able to keep client information secret? These assume that there is a special need for this kind of protection above and beyond what a normal citizen would need.
Well fuck that. I'd like to think we're all equal in the eyes of the law, no matter what our profession is.
Reversing the polarity of the electron discharge?
on
Antimatter In Lightning
·
· Score: 5, Funny
The decay of positrons in the largescale discharge of electronic particles may very well lead to gamma ray emissions, however it is crucial to understand the energy output required to reverse the polarity of the discharge so that we can reproduce the phenomenon in a controlled laboratory.
The big vendors who I trust already have built their inventory and this is just a temporary glitch in their manufacturing process. It's hardly something to be concerned about.
For Joe's Custom PCs and Feed Lot (or Dell), this may be a problem.
Should you go with an OEM who is well known and sells large volumes? Or should you stick with mom 'n pop PC assembly shops? I think it's like asking whether you should buy American or Chinese. Sure, one is cheaper but is it worth the lead poisoning?
It's an evolutionary advantage for the entire herd when a single injured member is incapacitated, thereby allowing predators to focus on the injured member instead of healthy members of the herd.
So by basically erasing all hope for recovery for the spinal injury victim, Evolution has enabled the non-injured humans a means of escape from lions, tigers, and bears.
Since we live in modern society, it's uncommon to see this kind of pursuit. However, evolutionarily speaking, the movement to cities and civilization is a pretty recent phenomenon. Until that fateful event, humans were preyed upon by many other wild animals.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, in some respects, programming is becoming easier and more unqualified people are able to do it.
But I think that these guys are really missing the boat. The closer the programming environment can come to providing domain-relevant expression tools to the user, the better they will be able to create programs that fit their domain.
In addition, content these days is a form of programming. Whether it is HTML/CSS or word processing or spreadsheets, the distinct line between what is a program and what is pure data is blurred beyond recognition. So a programming language for interpretive dance would probably find the Natal very useful.
#!perl -w /s /b *.jpg`;
system("cd \");
@files = `dir
print @files;
print "YER BUSTED PEDO!";
#This only works on Windows. Like COFEE.
The Latin word Torino (the proper spelling of 'Turin') means "small crag" or "small cliff". Similar to Greek Sparta, this citystate was notorious for performing infanticide of small, weak, and handicapped children. These kids would be thrown off the cliffs to their deaths for no other crime than being genetically inferior.
Nowadays we are a bit more conscientious about how we treat the weakest among us, but to see Torinos standing up for weak kids is kind of ironic considering the city's bloody history.
Back before memory was cheap and RAM speeds were fast, we couldn't use a full 32 bits to represent a pixel on the screen. If you did that, even at VGA resolution, you'd end up with approximately 1.2MB of memory reserved just to render to the screen. Double that if you want to have an off-screen buffer to prepare the next frame. On systems that had 8MB of RAM in total you can probably sympathize with the graphics guys when they had to skimp on bpp.
Even until very recently, many image formats only used 24bpp. Seeing as there's no real need to go above and beyond 8 bits per color, you can save a full fourth of the total memory just cutting out the unnecessary byte. Of course, you lose something very important: the Alpha channel. Suddenly, the great cost savings you get with that extra saved byte mean little since your image now can't blend nicely with anything else.
Our government is a 2bpp system in a 32bpp world.
I put a Type-R sticker and spoiler on it. I get a 5hp and 38hp boosts respectively from those little additions.
There's no magic here. It's all the same old standardized PC hardware.
What would be surprising is if they couldn't replace the CPU and peripherals. Or if they did so on a non-Intel platform.
Like the unpriced bottle of wine at Applebees. If you have to ask...
Peak Oil was really just the beginning. If nuclear energy were to take off, we would be out of uranium before the first year was over. This points to a deadly flaw in the use of natural resources as the basis for energy sources. If you have to mine it, drill it, or harvest it, you will always run the risk of running out of it.
This is why there are only a handful truly renewable resources. Solar, for as long as we really need to care about, is going to be around forever. Fusion, if effectively harnessed, could provide a very good power source without the pollution of fission and the only input is hydrogen (or even heavier elements). Gravititic potential energy is another largely untapped resource. While some forms of this like dams and tidal generators have been developed, there is literally an unlimited amount of energy in the form of space-time bending due to gravity.
We're so far behind the energy resource curve that it is only a matter of time before we end up in the dark.
Apple and Microsoft attack the problem of user interface from two completely different points of view. Microsoft wants things to be orthogonal, logical, menu driven, hierarchical, and otherwise fully featured. Apple takes the approach that the user doesn't want to fuss with all sorts of menus and submenus (no two button mouse for years!) and just wants to do what they need as simply as possible. So you end up with two completely different interfaces.
Apple's interface is elegant but inflexible. Everything fits into the existing scheme and runs perfectly within that scheme.
Windows' interface is flexible but clumsy. While this has gotten much better in later versions, we're still looking at deeply nested menus, and applications which do not necessarily have any UI themes in common with each other.
However the key point is that Microsoft is gradually becoming more user-centric. As far as that goes in their own perspective. They are making changes to the OS that were implemented in Mac years ago, and now that they are here, they make Windows a better product.
Aesthetics is a major theme with Apple, and it is one that Microsoft hadn't fully embraced until Vista. Listen to the users. Let the users tell you what is good and bad. Build the interface to match the user.
In a sense, the MS employee was right. Microsoft is doing a lot to emulate Apple. And frankly, it's about time.
There is a story further down the page: http://www.thelocal.se/23202/20091111/
A Swede was caught and fined for speeding on the autobahn.
As Americans, we sometimes willfully ignore facts, as most Americans believe the Autobahn to be this magical road where speed limits don't exist and every can drive as fast as they want.
Our perspective is very narrow and insular, and that is one of our greatest weaknesses. Our willingness to quickly grab ahold of any negative story about China, Iran, or other "enemy" of ours is precisely the result of this lack of perspective.
So when we see a new site that is offering up movies for free, we are quick to cheer. We are quick to glom on to any sort of thing that we find even somewhat pleasing without fully understanding all the consequences. How will the movie companies make money from this type of site? Who is actually paying for the movies you see?
Yes, the commercials are played before the movie now, but as that becomes unprofitable where are they going to start putting them? What are we going to lose down the road?
We all want free access to premium content. Is the price worth it?
Here's what happens when you access their site.
First you are presented with a very sparse page with a couple areas you can put your name and email address to "register".
Next, if you are so inclined, you enter your email address and name.
Then it says "Thanks for your interest in Voddler!"
Then you receive an email informing you that actually you didn't actually register since the site isn't actually open yet.
I suppose it was a good idea to use a throwaway account for this.
A clock has at least two hands depicting the hour and minute of the day. If stopped, it would appear that the clock is useless, but twice a day the clock tells the current time perfectly. What matters most is that you look at the clock at precisely those two moments to tell the time. Otherwise the tool just doesn't work as you'd expect it.
So when you take two tools that aren't very good, sometimes you end up with something that might be useful. But then again, just because you have two hands doesn't mean you're going to end up doing something useful. One hand could be occupied or paralyzed or otherwise out of commission. The other hand could be gimpy or not your favored hand or even cut off entirely if you lived in Saudi Arabia.
What I'm trying to say here is simply what you all are already thinking. Who is actually using Bing? Furthermore, who is actually using Alpha? These two useless hands working together just makes it easier to forget them both altogether.
Consider the time required to create either of those "solutions" though. The basalt quickly solidifies into its columnar shape while granite may take many multiple times that amount to become monolithic in the same scope.
Are there points of weakness in columnar basalt? Undoubtedly. But the rapid development and reasonable lifespan of these is a pretty good tradeoff.
I never said it evolved. I simply said that large structures must have strong structures.
The hexagonal "honeycomb" structure of basalt cliffs gives it resistance to landslides.
Although Nature is random and haphazard in its designs, it still has to follow the laws of physics. So large structures like trees, termite hills, and basalt cliffs are structured to be very strong.
Structures that must hold their form like honeycombs and coral reefs have interesting geometric structures.
And things that must be flexible, lightweight, and resistant to breakage like spider webs use multiple methods of increasing tensile strength.
If they didn't, physics would force them to break. So for each iteration of Nature, you get some strong and some weak structures, but due to the constant barrage of forces only the most adaptable survive. If genetically controlled, these traits get passed down to subsequent generations.
Did the judge consider the possibility that the boy in question might be a momma's boy and deserved the online abuse? I find it hard to believe that this kid is well adjusted considering his mommy is willing to go to court to unmask his tormentors.
It appears that his mom still dresses him.
http://electlisastone.com/images/stone_family.jpg
The worst part of this "invasion" is that the species isn't really tasty at all. Not to mention that every part of this particular jellyfish contains toxins. Every touching the top of the jellyfish will result in temporary numbness.
If they are proliferating because of a lack of predators, we should probably go ahead and kill as many of these as we can to maintain a good ecosystem balance.
I like my tea green.
But I'd probably give MS Support a call just to talk to this lady. I'd love to add some cream to her mug.
The code in question seems to be called into scrutiny because the two areas of code bear the same name (ReadBytes) and operate similarly.
The longer you work in the development of software, the less magical it all becomes. The first time you plugged some code into a terminal and it worked, it seemed like an amazing amount of wizardry and behind-the-scenes stuff that you could never fully fathom. Compilers, binary code, arcane source languages, electronic signals. It's amazing to a neophyte just how much stuff is going on.
But the longer you plug away at it, the more you realize that it's just code. Nothing special is really going on. You're mostly moving data from one area of memory to another. It's almost a form of Nirvana once you reach this point.
So when someone comes along and says "OMG YOUR READBYTES METHOD IS JUST LIKE THIS ONE IN SOME GPL CODE!!!!11", it kind of pegs that person as someone who doesn't really have much experience with real programming. Sure, they may use a lot of tools, and know how to recompile their kernel, but they really don't have a firm grasp of what and why they are doing what they are doing.
You don't need to be a "reporter" to protect your sources. The attempt to pigeonhole a specific right to a specific type of profession is exactly the kind of intellectual manipulation that is going on in this country, and I'm sad to see it happening in the judiciary.
Take for example the idea that we need extra security for air travel. We argue about the limits of search and seizure, but we never argue whether such search and seizure is actually necessary.
Why should only reporters be allowed to conceal their sources? Why should only priests, lawyers, and doctors be able to keep client information secret? These assume that there is a special need for this kind of protection above and beyond what a normal citizen would need.
Well fuck that. I'd like to think we're all equal in the eyes of the law, no matter what our profession is.
The LHC was obsolete before it was even constructed.
It never stood a chance.
The decay of positrons in the largescale discharge of electronic particles may very well lead to gamma ray emissions, however it is crucial to understand the energy output required to reverse the polarity of the discharge so that we can reproduce the phenomenon in a controlled laboratory.
Or else the Romulans will destroy the Federation.
Hmm...
*scribbles in notebook*
The big vendors who I trust already have built their inventory and this is just a temporary glitch in their manufacturing process. It's hardly something to be concerned about.
For Joe's Custom PCs and Feed Lot (or Dell), this may be a problem.
Should you go with an OEM who is well known and sells large volumes? Or should you stick with mom 'n pop PC assembly shops? I think it's like asking whether you should buy American or Chinese. Sure, one is cheaper but is it worth the lead poisoning?
It's an evolutionary advantage for the entire herd when a single injured member is incapacitated, thereby allowing predators to focus on the injured member instead of healthy members of the herd.
So by basically erasing all hope for recovery for the spinal injury victim, Evolution has enabled the non-injured humans a means of escape from lions, tigers, and bears.
Since we live in modern society, it's uncommon to see this kind of pursuit. However, evolutionarily speaking, the movement to cities and civilization is a pretty recent phenomenon. Until that fateful event, humans were preyed upon by many other wild animals.