I love a good screwdriver, me. It's a fine, honest tool. I'm a traditionalist - I like a flat blade. I've never liked those newfangled crossheads. I mean, they just don't have the elegance of a nice flat blade. They're rubbish for opening things too. You can jam a flat blade into just about anything. I'd ban crossheads, they're just forced on us by industry shills.
The best technology-based solution I've found is my old Fujitsu laptop with stylus and touchscreen. I can write equations, draw graphs and diagrams. I was very pleased with it. Then I realised it was almost as good as a pencil and paper, but not as fast or flexible. Now I use pencil and paper. Or a pen if I'm feeling confident.
That's a peculiar comment from a country where the official government and the opposition do little for workers rights, while bailing large banks for whatever they ask. In the 70's the unions had too much power, not now. As for thinking that a union (a political organisation) has no place commenting on politics, I can't see your logic.
RM lost the Amazon contract because they have repeatedly provided bad service. The irony is that RM have consistently moaned about the internet killing their business, while ignoring the boom in home shopping. Maybe it's time for a complete change of management.
That's not a great deal. First you tell me I'm infringing on your TM, but I can buy a license for $1. I go along with it to save some legal wrangling. Then the next year you decide the 'opening special' is over, and the license fee is now $1,000,000. It's much harder for me to argue that you don't have a case, because I've already bought a license from you.
I didn't realise the depth of Microsoft's problems until I found out that my university has a license to give away Windows 7 installs to all staff and students for home use for free. Oh, and we have officially skipped Vista across campus - no word on Win7 yet.
[UPDATE: this is not to say that getting a Ph.D. is useless. You can learn a lot of useful stuff by getting a Ph.D. But it's the knowledge and experience that you gain by going through the process that is potentially valuable (for business endeavors), not the degree itself.]
In the same way that banknotes are worthless, it's the ability to swap them for stuff that's important. -1, blindingly obvious.
G (universal gravitational constant) is everywhere, and no different on earth or in deep space. g (acceleration due to gravity at earths surface) is earth specific.
it generally does mean, "Drop everything and answer us now."
...and reporters wonder why we're not delighted to hear from them. One of the nice features of the open-source world is that projects become popular because they're good at what they do, rather than by shouting louder than anyone else. In such a world, press attention is less important. Which is fortunate, given the low quality of so much IT reporting (just because you can copy-paste the press release, doesn't mean you should).
Stagnation is perfect. If there were some big political issues being played out (something like the poll tax, privatisation of the railway, etc), the Pirate Party would have no hope. But I can't really see the difference between the major parties, and really can't find anyone I actually want to vote for. So, rather than striking my vote, I'll vote Pirate Party. If enough of us do, it'll make a point and maybe we'll see some reform on copyright and patents. It's a long shot. I don't expect the country to be run by the Pirate Party (although I'd love to hear the Queen's speech, the Royal Family have a long history of supporting pirates!), but I don't think I'm losing anything by not voting for a major party.
Give us (research groups) the freedom to set things up so they work for us, but offer help in achieving that. All research groups are different, and we all need different things. Often we know (almost) enough to do things ourselves, but a bit of central infrastructure is always helpful.
We run a mixture of Windows, Linux and Solaris - I think this is quite common. What would be really useful would be a few webpages describing how to configure things (services like LDAP or SAMBA) so they work with the central university structure. And please, Windows only solutions don't work for some of us. I have known several people who keep two computers on their desk because of this.
But most of all, don't lock it down unless you really need to.
I would have agreed with you, until the original poster admitted to have about 120 tabs open. That's like deciding to read the internet, starting at A, and working forward.
I'd like to agree with you, but there is strength in numbers.
Ubuntu may not get worse on your laptop for lack of market share, but it could get a whole lot better if the share increases. Drivers spring to mind first, but software is another problem. I am tied to Windows at work because certain software packages I use are not available under Linux. If Linux had 25% market share (or whatever random point==significant), there would be a reasonable chance of getting those packages ported. Currently there isn't.
We could argue all day about what compete should mean, but a larger userbase is a good thing.
If you're running Deb stable, and want to use your computer rather than mess with it, that's exactly the right thing to do. Kinda why Debian stable was invented really.
Nobody. They come and find you. Did this in the UK with a bunch of volunteers laying cycle-path. We had a visit from a helicopter, tools down, sign here to say you won't touch this hole again, official secrets act and all. And a bunch of very upset volunteers. We did our homework, we had notified, checked for services, etc. Thanks HMG, you made us look bad and took no responsibility. Oh, and it wasn't fibre. It was a freakin' gas main!
They simply don't encourage learning and get in your way
That's exactly why I just gave up on Eclipse, and decided to finally learn to use vi well. Modern IDE's try to do far too much. The last straw with Eclipse was when I wanted (as an inexperienced new user) to write a very short C++ file to test an idea. Eclipse forced me to jump through hoops, defining a project and suchlike. Many of my files are not a project, they're a short self-contained piece of code to do something specific. For coding, I want an editor with syntax highlighting, and a command line. I'm not averse to the right tool - I'm also a happy Qt-designer user, but I'm writing the code with vim.
I work in an academic lab. We have potential biological, radioactive, chemical, cryo, electrical and magnetic field hazards. Without a serious safety regime it could be a dangerous place. Like most university labs we have very few undergrad students, who are continuously supervised while they are with us for short projects. Everybody has to take regular safety courses. We also have to report safety incidents. We have regular safety audits. This is normal for a university. That you rarely reach more than a couple of months between reportable incidents speaks as much for your own record as for the quality of the system, we typically go for much longer without incident.
I think part of the problem here is that most university grads have not been grad students. As an undergrad you are well protected (mainly from yourself). The experiments you undertake have been pre-designed to allow for your limited experience. But it's cool to talk about how dangerous your lab work is. If you start working as a grad student, the safety training really starts. It's not about going on courses where you learn about what to do in a fire (we have to do those to), it's about learning to always look for safety risks in what you do. As a scientist, you are best qualified to recognise risks in your own experiment. A good scientist quickly forms the habit of always checking.
In my experience, safety for our industrial partners means someone in their safety office has signed off on an experiment. For me, it means I sit down with a colleague or two and work out if we need anything above the normal safety procedure. Different approaches for different environments. Both can work, if done properly.
You're not very good at this are you? I know you're trying to spread FUD, but you made me laugh. Go and read the ODF thread and see how the big boys play.
Especially when the competition happen to be quite a lot smaller than you are. I good day for AMD, and freedom for real competition. I can put up with straight bananas for this.
Slashdot Mirror
I love a good screwdriver, me. It's a fine, honest tool. I'm a traditionalist - I like a flat blade. I've never liked those newfangled crossheads. I mean, they just don't have the elegance of a nice flat blade. They're rubbish for opening things too. You can jam a flat blade into just about anything. I'd ban crossheads, they're just forced on us by industry shills.
The best technology-based solution I've found is my old Fujitsu laptop with stylus and touchscreen. I can write equations, draw graphs and diagrams. I was very pleased with it. Then I realised it was almost as good as a pencil and paper, but not as fast or flexible. Now I use pencil and paper. Or a pen if I'm feeling confident.
That's a peculiar comment from a country where the official government and the opposition do little for workers rights, while bailing large banks for whatever they ask. In the 70's the unions had too much power, not now. As for thinking that a union (a political organisation) has no place commenting on politics, I can't see your logic. RM lost the Amazon contract because they have repeatedly provided bad service. The irony is that RM have consistently moaned about the internet killing their business, while ignoring the boom in home shopping. Maybe it's time for a complete change of management.
That's not a great deal. First you tell me I'm infringing on your TM, but I can buy a license for $1. I go along with it to save some legal wrangling. Then the next year you decide the 'opening special' is over, and the license fee is now $1,000,000. It's much harder for me to argue that you don't have a case, because I've already bought a license from you.
I didn't realise the depth of Microsoft's problems until I found out that my university has a license to give away Windows 7 installs to all staff and students for home use for free. Oh, and we have officially skipped Vista across campus - no word on Win7 yet.
Excellent idea, that'll show 'em. Then nobody else will want to become a patent troll...
[UPDATE: this is not to say that getting a Ph.D. is useless. You can learn a lot of useful stuff by getting a Ph.D. But it's the knowledge and experience that you gain by going through the process that is potentially valuable (for business endeavors), not the degree itself.]
In the same way that banknotes are worthless, it's the ability to swap them for stuff that's important. -1, blindingly obvious.
G (universal gravitational constant) is everywhere, and no different on earth or in deep space. g (acceleration due to gravity at earths surface) is earth specific.
it generally does mean, "Drop everything and answer us now."
...and reporters wonder why we're not delighted to hear from them. One of the nice features of the open-source world is that projects become popular because they're good at what they do, rather than by shouting louder than anyone else. In such a world, press attention is less important. Which is fortunate, given the low quality of so much IT reporting (just because you can copy-paste the press release, doesn't mean you should).
Stagnation is perfect. If there were some big political issues being played out (something like the poll tax, privatisation of the railway, etc), the Pirate Party would have no hope. But I can't really see the difference between the major parties, and really can't find anyone I actually want to vote for. So, rather than striking my vote, I'll vote Pirate Party. If enough of us do, it'll make a point and maybe we'll see some reform on copyright and patents. It's a long shot. I don't expect the country to be run by the Pirate Party (although I'd love to hear the Queen's speech, the Royal Family have a long history of supporting pirates!), but I don't think I'm losing anything by not voting for a major party.
Bastard. I was almost cured. Must...not...download...ooh, shiny ships nice
Give us (research groups) the freedom to set things up so they work for us, but offer help in achieving that. All research groups are different, and we all need different things. Often we know (almost) enough to do things ourselves, but a bit of central infrastructure is always helpful. We run a mixture of Windows, Linux and Solaris - I think this is quite common. What would be really useful would be a few webpages describing how to configure things (services like LDAP or SAMBA) so they work with the central university structure. And please, Windows only solutions don't work for some of us. I have known several people who keep two computers on their desk because of this. But most of all, don't lock it down unless you really need to.
It takes me about 30 minutes of work to clean up the worst infected windows computer
Care to share? I've always had the feeling this must be possible, but have no idea how. Do you manually edit the registry, or have some magic tool?
"I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it short." Blaise Pascal, 1656.
The watchmaker has had more time...
I would have agreed with you, until the original poster admitted to have about 120 tabs open. That's like deciding to read the internet, starting at A, and working forward.
My flash drive is automatically backed up...
Now that's a neat trick. How did you make it plug itself in? Mine won't do that - it won't even come when I shout. Maybe it's time for an upgrade.
I'd like to agree with you, but there is strength in numbers. Ubuntu may not get worse on your laptop for lack of market share, but it could get a whole lot better if the share increases. Drivers spring to mind first, but software is another problem. I am tied to Windows at work because certain software packages I use are not available under Linux. If Linux had 25% market share (or whatever random point==significant), there would be a reasonable chance of getting those packages ported. Currently there isn't. We could argue all day about what compete should mean, but a larger userbase is a good thing.
If you're running Deb stable, and want to use your computer rather than mess with it, that's exactly the right thing to do. Kinda why Debian stable was invented really.
Nobody. They come and find you. Did this in the UK with a bunch of volunteers laying cycle-path. We had a visit from a helicopter, tools down, sign here to say you won't touch this hole again, official secrets act and all. And a bunch of very upset volunteers. We did our homework, we had notified, checked for services, etc. Thanks HMG, you made us look bad and took no responsibility. Oh, and it wasn't fibre. It was a freakin' gas main!
They simply don't encourage learning and get in your way
That's exactly why I just gave up on Eclipse, and decided to finally learn to use vi well. Modern IDE's try to do far too much. The last straw with Eclipse was when I wanted (as an inexperienced new user) to write a very short C++ file to test an idea. Eclipse forced me to jump through hoops, defining a project and suchlike. Many of my files are not a project, they're a short self-contained piece of code to do something specific. For coding, I want an editor with syntax highlighting, and a command line. I'm not averse to the right tool - I'm also a happy Qt-designer user, but I'm writing the code with vim.
Why father, I love you more than salt...
I work in an academic lab. We have potential biological, radioactive, chemical, cryo, electrical and magnetic field hazards. Without a serious safety regime it could be a dangerous place. Like most university labs we have very few undergrad students, who are continuously supervised while they are with us for short projects. Everybody has to take regular safety courses. We also have to report safety incidents. We have regular safety audits. This is normal for a university. That you rarely reach more than a couple of months between reportable incidents speaks as much for your own record as for the quality of the system, we typically go for much longer without incident.
I think part of the problem here is that most university grads have not been grad students. As an undergrad you are well protected (mainly from yourself). The experiments you undertake have been pre-designed to allow for your limited experience. But it's cool to talk about how dangerous your lab work is. If you start working as a grad student, the safety training really starts. It's not about going on courses where you learn about what to do in a fire (we have to do those to), it's about learning to always look for safety risks in what you do. As a scientist, you are best qualified to recognise risks in your own experiment. A good scientist quickly forms the habit of always checking.
In my experience, safety for our industrial partners means someone in their safety office has signed off on an experiment. For me, it means I sit down with a colleague or two and work out if we need anything above the normal safety procedure. Different approaches for different environments. Both can work, if done properly.
You're not very good at this are you? I know you're trying to spread FUD, but you made me laugh. Go and read the ODF thread and see how the big boys play.
In reality, depriving yourself of sleep makes you less productive.
The last two chapters of my PhD thesis would disagree with you. 2-3hrs a night for a little over a week, and suddenly it all made sense
Especially when the competition happen to be quite a lot smaller than you are. I good day for AMD, and freedom for real competition. I can put up with straight bananas for this.