I wish real driving were like video games. I want a car you can total, push "X" and it's totally repaired and back on the road, and somehow you emerged from the fiery wreck fully conscious and without a scratch.
I once had an interview where they handed me a few lines of abberent C code and asked what's the output. I answered that it didn't matter, because C code should never be written like that. Production C code should never look like an entry in the Obfuscated C contest.
That was the wrong answer, of course, and I didn't get an offer, but I figured a sysadmin job at a place that wanted me to be able to read obfuscated C entries probably wasn't the place I wanted to work anyway.
Some day all reality TV and it's offshoots will finally disappear. Some day.........
You know, I've been thinking that since, oh about the second round of Survivor. I'm rather impressed with the staying power of contrived-reality TV. I expected it to be a two-year fad, maybe three. But it's now been 6 years and shows no signs of abating.
Yep. "Privacy" is a rather modern invention. Privacy in a small town where everyone knows who you are and what you're doing? Hardly! Or how about in a tribal culture?
I'm inclined to think that if "everyone" has access to the comings and goings of people, it ceases to be news, and just returns us all to "one big happy neighborhood". It's if only the government has the access that I start worring about Big Brother.
To test and debug the system, have they hired a couple of good magicians skilled at "mentalist" acts, with a promise to pay them well for their time if they can successfully cheat?
Of course, James Randi is a magician himself, and was behind the perpetrators of the Project Alpha fraud, so it's reasonable to think he would be aware of possible deceptive methods.
This is pretty much the way the computer world works. The server folks reinvent wheels from the mainframe world, then the desktop folks reinvent wheels from the server world.
Why hasn't the US already switched away from oil? Because it's cheap compared to competitive technologies.
Right on. Let there be a good profit in alternative technologies (whether it's biodiesel, fuel cells, or Mr. Fusion) watch the floodgates open. Until then, petroleum wins, simply because it's cheap.
Back when I was a kid (1970s), we had something called "Moms." There were several of them in the neighborhood, and they all knew each other and formed an ad hoc reconnaissance network, to keep tabs on all the kids in the neighborhood. There was a chain of custody, maintained by requisite protocols, "Can I go play at Jesse's house?" The moms had devices called telephones whereby they could call the mom with current custody to verify location of a child, request said child come home for dinner, or just catch up on the latest neighborhood news.
Yep, when I was a kid we didn't need these new-fangled cell phone things. We had something far more insidious.
A former Apple employee once told me that everyone there knew what their REAL job was -- making stuff for Steve's next demo.
And it works. Whatever is announced, the Apple Store will be swamped with pre-orders for it, and I will again be amazed at his ability to tempt me to pull my credit card out of my wallet and click on store.apple.com.:)
(Fortunately, I'm poor enough to resist, but I sure feel the tug!)
it's *always* been a bad idea to buy *now* - right before MacWorld Expo.
Ain't that the truth. It always amazes me to see people whining on Mac-oriented sites and mailing lists about how the ________ that they just bought has just been replaced by a spiffy new super-_______.
As if it's a surprise that Apple tends to announce big things at Macworld and WWDC......
The one sure thing is that, whatever he announces at MacWorld, Steve Jobs will made it seem like the most amazing development in the history of computing, and the Apple Store site will be bogged down with orders.
Something as high profile as "Dewey defeats Truman" might be caught quickly, but just because it's online doesn't mean that bogus information isn't out there.
When I've taught introductory Unix classes, I simply tell the students to remember that *nix commands are simple to remember if you remember a couple of "rules":
1. *nix hates vowels.
2. Use as few consonants as necessary to get the point across.
See? It's simple. "Remove" becomes "rm". "Move" becomes "mv". "Remove directory" becomes "rmdir". (Hey! Who snuck that vowel in there?)
I'm on dialup at home (only option I have). I'm on an OC-3 at work.
Yeah, I can tell the difference. There are a LOT of pages out there that load slowly, so even general surfing is noticeably different. Throw in podcasts, iTunes music purchases, and OS updates, and even "general" internet use these days needs more speed than dialup can deliver.
Slashdot Mirror
I have a feeling that this is going to find itself posted in a whole lot of offices and cubicles......
I wish real driving were like video games. I want a car you can total, push "X" and it's totally repaired and back on the road, and somehow you emerged from the fiery wreck fully conscious and without a scratch.
Amen, brother.
I once had an interview where they handed me a few lines of abberent C code and asked what's the output. I answered that it didn't matter, because C code should never be written like that. Production C code should never look like an entry in the Obfuscated C contest.
That was the wrong answer, of course, and I didn't get an offer, but I figured a sysadmin job at a place that wanted me to be able to read obfuscated C entries probably wasn't the place I wanted to work anyway.
Geoff
Some day all reality TV and it's offshoots will finally disappear. Some day.........
You know, I've been thinking that since, oh about the second round of Survivor. I'm rather impressed with the staying power of contrived-reality TV. I expected it to be a two-year fad, maybe three. But it's now been 6 years and shows no signs of abating.
Geoff
Yeah, that was my reaction to this as well. How long until some high-profile Democrat makes a statement not too far from this?
So the great thing about lists like this is the arguments they create as everyone argues for what should or shouldn't have been on the list.
For me, the one that "should have been" is PageMaker. That's a program that helped reinvent what personal computers were all about.
Geoff
Ones with no lives, I would imagine.
No we don't.
Yep. "Privacy" is a rather modern invention. Privacy in a small town where everyone knows who you are and what you're doing? Hardly! Or how about in a tribal culture?
I'm inclined to think that if "everyone" has access to the comings and goings of people, it ceases to be news, and just returns us all to "one big happy neighborhood". It's if only the government has the access that I start worring about Big Brother.
Geoff
To test and debug the system, have they hired a couple of good magicians skilled at "mentalist" acts, with a promise to pay them well for their time if they can successfully cheat?
In fact, it has happened that magicians have been used to fool psychic researchers, so it's a reasonable way to "test the test."
Of course, James Randi is a magician himself, and was behind the perpetrators of the Project Alpha fraud, so it's reasonable to think he would be aware of possible deceptive methods.
Geoff
This is pretty much the way the computer world works. The server folks reinvent wheels from the mainframe world, then the desktop folks reinvent wheels from the server world.
And so the cycle goes....
Geoff
I'm not sure, but I hear there was a huge cleavage along the Colorado River in Arizona.
Geoff
Maybe it's not that his wrists are too sore, but are turning into a sore, thus "wrists-to-sore". :-)
Geoff
Why hasn't the US already switched away from oil? Because it's cheap compared to competitive technologies.
Right on. Let there be a good profit in alternative technologies (whether it's biodiesel, fuel cells, or Mr. Fusion) watch the floodgates open. Until then, petroleum wins, simply because it's cheap.
Geoff
Back when I was a kid (1970s), we had something called "Moms." There were several of them in the neighborhood, and they all knew each other and formed an ad hoc reconnaissance network, to keep tabs on all the kids in the neighborhood. There was a chain of custody, maintained by requisite protocols, "Can I go play at Jesse's house?" The moms had devices called telephones whereby they could call the mom with current custody to verify location of a child, request said child come home for dinner, or just catch up on the latest neighborhood news.
Yep, when I was a kid we didn't need these new-fangled cell phone things. We had something far more insidious.
A better analogy might be an oil company pushing SUVs, which does indeed make sense.
Geoff
A former Apple employee once told me that everyone there knew what their REAL job was -- making stuff for Steve's next demo.
:)
And it works. Whatever is announced, the Apple Store will be swamped with pre-orders for it, and I will again be amazed at his ability to tempt me to pull my credit card out of my wallet and click on store.apple.com.
(Fortunately, I'm poor enough to resist, but I sure feel the tug!)
Geoff
it's *always* been a bad idea to buy *now* - right before MacWorld Expo.
Ain't that the truth. It always amazes me to see people whining on Mac-oriented sites and mailing lists about how the ________ that they just bought has just been replaced by a spiffy new super-_______.
As if it's a surprise that Apple tends to announce big things at Macworld and WWDC......
Geoff
The one sure thing is that, whatever he announces at MacWorld, Steve Jobs will made it seem like the most amazing development in the history of computing, and the Apple Store site will be bogged down with orders.
Geoff
Something as high profile as "Dewey defeats Truman" might be caught quickly, but just because it's online doesn't mean that bogus information isn't out there.
When I've taught introductory Unix classes, I simply tell the students to remember that *nix commands are simple to remember if you remember a couple of "rules":
1. *nix hates vowels.
2. Use as few consonants as necessary to get the point across.
See? It's simple. "Remove" becomes "rm". "Move" becomes "mv". "Remove directory" becomes "rmdir". (Hey! Who snuck that vowel in there?)
Geoff
I'm on dialup at home (only option I have). I'm on an OC-3 at work.
Yeah, I can tell the difference. There are a LOT of pages out there that load slowly, so even general surfing is noticeably different. Throw in podcasts, iTunes music purchases, and OS updates, and even "general" internet use these days needs more speed than dialup can deliver.
Geoff
I first read the title as "Seagate buys Maxtor for $1.98" which gave me images of Rip Taylor tossing confetti in the air.
Geoff
Control and command are different keys.
And what happens when the conspiracy is discovered?