What you don't realize is that DrLang21's misspelling of plagiarism was intentional. If anyone tries to copy his post and claim it as their own, now he can prove they plagerized.
Somewhere at infoworld.com, there is a rogue superuser who's created a devilish hack to fit all the contents of an article onto a single page. Someone needs to embrace that guy.
You're supposed to drive safely. If there are cars behind you, and you have time to get through a legally timed yellow light, the safest thing is to proceed. Slamming on your brakes for every yellow light you can is going to lead to getting rear ended.
Thank you for the tips. I currently use an amplified Rat Shack antenna, and the reception is quite bad. I'm in an apartment building so my options are limited, but at least I'm on the top floor. I think I'll try a DB2 or a DB4 as you suggested. I wish I could try them both out somehow and then decide.
I just took a quick glance at chapter 4, and I can tell you that this book is complete shit. Their solution to handling web forms is to write some quick and dirty error handling functions. An approach like that guarantees you're going to overlook some security holes, and that every time you want to handle a form you'll be rewriting your code.
Use classes. Take advantage of libraries like HTML_QuickForm or Zend_Form. If those don't meet your needs, build your own. In either case, learn about the common security problems with forms such as XSS attacks and SQL injection. Don't just start barfing out functions into your page, but instead organize your thoughts, and think about how you can generalize the problem. If you expect to be doing the same basic task repeatedly, spend more time on generalization. If not, you can keep it more basic, but you still want to group things together. Don't repeat yourself.
PHP as a language has moved far ahead from its shaky beginnings. It's far from perfect, but it can be used well. Compare the hideous old "formmail.php" script that used to be popular to the shiny new Swift Mailer to see just how far things have come. It's up to each programmer if they want to challenge themselves to write truly excellent code, or if they just want to keep kludging along. If you make the effort you'll be rewarded many times over.
I also have a hard time understanding people who feel the need to be connected all the time. I would have enjoyed asking your tablemates what sort of things they're communicating about that just couldn't wait. Unless a vital server has crashed or someone I care about is in the emergency room, there's very little that can't wait a few hours.
Watching a movie with people like that is not very fun. They'll answer their phone, bring their laptop, send text messages, or talk about unrelated things during the movie. I prefer to turn down the lights, turn off the ringer and get absorbed in the experience without any distractions.
I think that's what bugs me the most - over connected people don't seem to be able to appreciate what they're currently experiencing. They can't give the present 100 percent focus. They're always concerned about what other people in other places are doing, while they might be missing what's right in front of them.
I think a little common sense is in order here. We don't need to choose between clueless users wreaking havoc and technically adept users being prevented from getting things done.
Here's what I would do:
1. By default, every PC is locked down and managed. 2. Users who want to make changes to their setups can apply for greater control. In most cases they will be approved. 3. Users who opt to take control also take responsibility for fixing their mistakes. If you cause too many problems you may lose admin rights. That's not to say you can't still get support within reason. 4. Users must follow some basic policies about what can be installed, and must go through IT to manage licenses for anything not explicitly free. There will be spot checks.
If more data is helpful, then Netflix is really hurting themselves with their 5-star rating system. I'd only give 5 stars to a really amazing movie, but to only give 3/5 stars to a movie I enjoyed feels too low. Many movies that range from a 7/10 to a 9/10 get lumped into that 4 star category, and the nuances of the data are lost.
How to translate the entire experience of watching a movie into a lone number is a separate issue.
Seriously? MSDN, when it finally loads, does have documentation for the simplest use cases of various methods. However, there is little not much of a community of people discussing things and helping each other solve problems anywhere. So once you go past the simplest use cases, you're out of luck. In PHP, ugly though it may be, most times when I have a problem I can Google and find someone else who's already solved it. Also, php.net not only has solid language documentation, it has many helpful contributions from other coders because it allows them to add follow up comments.
My experience is that in real-world cases of solving problems and providing robust examples, PHP's online resources are far superior. I develop in both languages, and I'd love to have better resources for.NET. Generally, once I have the final code for a.NET program, it is simpler and shorter than the PHP equivalent. However, to get there I have to waste time trying to find my way to some obscure setting..NET makes many hard things easy, and many easy things hard.
This is such a boring approach to online games. I think much better would be a service that aims to run ANY turn-based game. Create a language to describe the rules of play, table setup, and optionally an AI. Provide basic concepts such as a deck of cards, a playing surface, and a set of game pieces. All you'd have to do is write a few example games, and the users would do the rest, coding up every standard game, and inventing many of their own.
Making it profitable while keeping it open and user friendly is a bit more complicated, but definitely doable. I was thinking of starting something like this, but since I don't think I'll have the time anytime soon, perhaps someone would like to take the idea and run with it.
It really is like a religion, in at least two major ways.
For one, people with a religious mindset latch onto that mindset so strongly that it becomes a part of their identity. It's not just something they participate in, it's a piece of who they are. An attack against the religion is an attack against them personally. Mac owners often think of themselves as Mac people, as a connected group of people who understand things that those on the outside just can't or won't grasp. They also believe everyone would be happier in their camp.
Second, getting involved in religion is a major investment. Once you're in deep enough, there will be a serious cost and discomfort associated with breaking away from that religion. Therefore, there is a tendency to hold onto the religion in order to avoid that cost. In matters of faith, the cost is mostly social and emotional. In the Mac world, the cost is more financial and practical due to becoming locked into to proprietary data formats and hardware, and accustomed a unique user interface.
What difference does it make if some companies don't like Google's results? They may be the biggest site on the web but they're also just a search engine. They can show whatever the heck they want when someone searches for Best Buy. They could show only Circuit City results, or pictures of iguanas, or whatever. Google doesn't complain about what Best Buy puts on their website.
If companies are unhappy about the results, they can always pay to place ads. If the end users aren't happy, they can always use another search engine. However, this new feature does seem like it will make users happy, which is what ultimately helps Google to succeed.
PC gamers are people who like to take on challenges on their computers, and feel a sense of victory and accomplishment when they use use their wit and skill to defeat a difficult level. The last thing you should do is turn the act of stealing your game into another challenge for them to conquer.
If you employ DRM, gamers will feel disrespected by your company, and they will feel pretty cool when they manage to defeat it. If you use no DRM, the gamers will feel that you trust them, that you "get it," and stealing from you would make them feel like cheapskates.
Engineering students will find the problem of autonomy more interesting, but when it comes down to it, human control is going to give a team the greatest chance of winning. Furthermore, if autonomy is not required, the time spent developing it would be better spent on weapons and defense systems.
The only way autonomy would happen is if it is required. I'd love to see it as a requirement, but the fact is that controlled machines are going to be more interesting to watch, even if they represent less of a technical achievement.
Perhaps they could have two subclasses, or have the robots fight one round autonomous and one round remote controlled. I also think each team should be required to release their AI code under the GPL at the start of each competition. That way, after every competition the AI will keep getting better, and new teams won't have to start from scratch.
[Google] doesn't know the names of most of its users.
That's cute, real cute. I'm pretty sure Google knows more about me than anyone in my life. They know my name from Gmail and they've confirmed it with Google Checkout. They got my address there and know it's the same street I use as an origin when getting directions on Google Maps. They also know all the alternate emails I use that forward into Gmail. They follow my Slashdot usage because Gmail gets notified when someone replies to one of my posts. They learn about all my online purchases that way too. They recently learned more about my web endeavors thanks to Google Analytics.
They know countless random topics that have popped into my head, because the first thing I do is to Google them. This has taught them all sorts of things about my personality and interests, including topics I might keep private from most everyone I know. When I go to Google News they learn about what events catch my attention. They know I still only click on a Google Ad every few months, but that hasn't stopped them from showing ads every chance they get. And of course, they've got Doubleclick now just on the off chance that I might be visiting a site they don't cover or that I might click on an ad they didn't provide.
I didn't even mention Picasa or Google Earth. And if that's not enough, just imagine what they'll know once they get a piece of the internet backbone.
Taking their license away would potentially hurt the customers even more. The solution is much simpler - money. Fine them, and keep raising the fines until it becomes more cost effective for Comcast to behave. Money is a fantastic motivator.
I don't know if the FCC has the authority and/or the will to take such an action, however.
Slashdot Mirror
This is spam's "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." It's so special, it brings a tear to my eye.
They forgot to include a remove link though. WTF?
Seriously. It's a trend to create websites with more dynamic and shared content. That's it. No church, no ideology, no 2.0.
Amen!
Everyone just does what they think will make them happy. It really is that simple.
What you don't realize is that DrLang21's misspelling of plagiarism was intentional. If anyone tries to copy his post and claim it as their own, now he can prove they plagerized.
Somewhere at infoworld.com, there is a rogue superuser who's created a devilish hack to fit all the contents of an article onto a single page. Someone needs to embrace that guy.
Interesting concept. Anyone know what story it was?
You're supposed to drive safely. If there are cars behind you, and you have time to get through a legally timed yellow light, the safest thing is to proceed. Slamming on your brakes for every yellow light you can is going to lead to getting rear ended.
Recording your life is easy. Making it easily searchable is the real technical challenge.
"Show me that conversation from a few years ago when Kelly told the clown joke."
Thank you for the tips. I currently use an amplified Rat Shack antenna, and the reception is quite bad. I'm in an apartment building so my options are limited, but at least I'm on the top floor. I think I'll try a DB2 or a DB4 as you suggested. I wish I could try them both out somehow and then decide.
HDTV is fantastic when it does actually pick up.
I just took a quick glance at chapter 4, and I can tell you that this book is complete shit. Their solution to handling web forms is to write some quick and dirty error handling functions. An approach like that guarantees you're going to overlook some security holes, and that every time you want to handle a form you'll be rewriting your code.
Use classes. Take advantage of libraries like HTML_QuickForm or Zend_Form. If those don't meet your needs, build your own. In either case, learn about the common security problems with forms such as XSS attacks and SQL injection. Don't just start barfing out functions into your page, but instead organize your thoughts, and think about how you can generalize the problem. If you expect to be doing the same basic task repeatedly, spend more time on generalization. If not, you can keep it more basic, but you still want to group things together. Don't repeat yourself.
PHP as a language has moved far ahead from its shaky beginnings. It's far from perfect, but it can be used well. Compare the hideous old "formmail.php" script that used to be popular to the shiny new Swift Mailer to see just how far things have come. It's up to each programmer if they want to challenge themselves to write truly excellent code, or if they just want to keep kludging along. If you make the effort you'll be rewarded many times over.
I also have a hard time understanding people who feel the need to be connected all the time. I would have enjoyed asking your tablemates what sort of things they're communicating about that just couldn't wait. Unless a vital server has crashed or someone I care about is in the emergency room, there's very little that can't wait a few hours.
Watching a movie with people like that is not very fun. They'll answer their phone, bring their laptop, send text messages, or talk about unrelated things during the movie. I prefer to turn down the lights, turn off the ringer and get absorbed in the experience without any distractions.
I think that's what bugs me the most - over connected people don't seem to be able to appreciate what they're currently experiencing. They can't give the present 100 percent focus. They're always concerned about what other people in other places are doing, while they might be missing what's right in front of them.
I think a little common sense is in order here. We don't need to choose between clueless users wreaking havoc and technically adept users being prevented from getting things done.
Here's what I would do:
1. By default, every PC is locked down and managed.
2. Users who want to make changes to their setups can apply for greater control. In most cases they will be approved.
3. Users who opt to take control also take responsibility for fixing their mistakes. If you cause too many problems you may lose admin rights. That's not to say you can't still get support within reason.
4. Users must follow some basic policies about what can be installed, and must go through IT to manage licenses for anything not explicitly free. There will be spot checks.
If more data is helpful, then Netflix is really hurting themselves with their 5-star rating system. I'd only give 5 stars to a really amazing movie, but to only give 3/5 stars to a movie I enjoyed feels too low. Many movies that range from a 7/10 to a 9/10 get lumped into that 4 star category, and the nuances of the data are lost.
How to translate the entire experience of watching a movie into a lone number is a separate issue.
Seriously? MSDN, when it finally loads, does have documentation for the simplest use cases of various methods. However, there is little not much of a community of people discussing things and helping each other solve problems anywhere. So once you go past the simplest use cases, you're out of luck. In PHP, ugly though it may be, most times when I have a problem I can Google and find someone else who's already solved it. Also, php.net not only has solid language documentation, it has many helpful contributions from other coders because it allows them to add follow up comments.
.NET. Generally, once I have the final code for a .NET program, it is simpler and shorter than the PHP equivalent. However, to get there I have to waste time trying to find my way to some obscure setting. .NET makes many hard things easy, and many easy things hard.
My experience is that in real-world cases of solving problems and providing robust examples, PHP's online resources are far superior. I develop in both languages, and I'd love to have better resources for
This is such a boring approach to online games. I think much better would be a service that aims to run ANY turn-based game. Create a language to describe the rules of play, table setup, and optionally an AI. Provide basic concepts such as a deck of cards, a playing surface, and a set of game pieces. All you'd have to do is write a few example games, and the users would do the rest, coding up every standard game, and inventing many of their own.
Making it profitable while keeping it open and user friendly is a bit more complicated, but definitely doable. I was thinking of starting something like this, but since I don't think I'll have the time anytime soon, perhaps someone would like to take the idea and run with it.
It really is like a religion, in at least two major ways.
For one, people with a religious mindset latch onto that mindset so strongly that it becomes a part of their identity. It's not just something they participate in, it's a piece of who they are. An attack against the religion is an attack against them personally. Mac owners often think of themselves as Mac people, as a connected group of people who understand things that those on the outside just can't or won't grasp. They also believe everyone would be happier in their camp.
Second, getting involved in religion is a major investment. Once you're in deep enough, there will be a serious cost and discomfort associated with breaking away from that religion. Therefore, there is a tendency to hold onto the religion in order to avoid that cost. In matters of faith, the cost is mostly social and emotional. In the Mac world, the cost is more financial and practical due to becoming locked into to proprietary data formats and hardware, and accustomed a unique user interface.
The debunkers should try getting drunk and reviewing the paper again. See if they get the same results.
What difference does it make if some companies don't like Google's results? They may be the biggest site on the web but they're also just a search engine. They can show whatever the heck they want when someone searches for Best Buy. They could show only Circuit City results, or pictures of iguanas, or whatever. Google doesn't complain about what Best Buy puts on their website.
If companies are unhappy about the results, they can always pay to place ads. If the end users aren't happy, they can always use another search engine. However, this new feature does seem like it will make users happy, which is what ultimately helps Google to succeed.
PC gamers are people who like to take on challenges on their computers, and feel a sense of victory and accomplishment when they use use their wit and skill to defeat a difficult level. The last thing you should do is turn the act of stealing your game into another challenge for them to conquer.
If you employ DRM, gamers will feel disrespected by your company, and they will feel pretty cool when they manage to defeat it. If you use no DRM, the gamers will feel that you trust them, that you "get it," and stealing from you would make them feel like cheapskates.
Engineering students will find the problem of autonomy more interesting, but when it comes down to it, human control is going to give a team the greatest chance of winning. Furthermore, if autonomy is not required, the time spent developing it would be better spent on weapons and defense systems.
The only way autonomy would happen is if it is required. I'd love to see it as a requirement, but the fact is that controlled machines are going to be more interesting to watch, even if they represent less of a technical achievement.
Perhaps they could have two subclasses, or have the robots fight one round autonomous and one round remote controlled. I also think each team should be required to release their AI code under the GPL at the start of each competition. That way, after every competition the AI will keep getting better, and new teams won't have to start from scratch.
They know countless random topics that have popped into my head, because the first thing I do is to Google them. This has taught them all sorts of things about my personality and interests, including topics I might keep private from most everyone I know. When I go to Google News they learn about what events catch my attention. They know I still only click on a Google Ad every few months, but that hasn't stopped them from showing ads every chance they get. And of course, they've got Doubleclick now just on the off chance that I might be visiting a site they don't cover or that I might click on an ad they didn't provide.
I didn't even mention Picasa or Google Earth. And if that's not enough, just imagine what they'll know once they get a piece of the internet backbone.
No offense to the Googlebot reading this!
Taking their license away would potentially hurt the customers even more. The solution is much simpler - money. Fine them, and keep raising the fines until it becomes more cost effective for Comcast to behave. Money is a fantastic motivator.
I don't know if the FCC has the authority and/or the will to take such an action, however.