Apparently in Japan, many foods (including Diet Coke) are sweetened with stevia instead of sugar or aspartame.
Stevia is a natural herbal sweetener which is something like 300x sweeter than sugar. Unfortunately, as this article says (http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/food/ste via/index.html), it is illegal in North America as a food additive because the FDA and Health Canada have not yet approved it as such. More information about stevia can be found at http://www.stevia.net/
They used too many words in Excessive overtime is endemic in the videogame industry. It's just as accurate to say Excessive overtime is endemic, at least for most of the jobs that I have had.
As for changing the attitude of employers, it's not likely to happen. Employers enjoy getting as much work for as little outlay as they can, and once they burn people out they feel no qualms about getting rid of "the deadweight".
Thanks, both for the useful information and for the assumption that I am not intending to break copyright.
Your described setup sounds like what I am looking for - something that has the database and browser advantages without having to set up local servers.
Just a few questions.
How well would this work with non-Mozilla-based browsers (such as Opera or Internet Explorer)? Unfortunately, not everyone has Mozilla or Firefox or..., and requiring someone to change browsers could be a roadblock to them.
What sort of performance would this give for data access? Comparable to database? And would this allow for arbitrary text string searches in any of the lyrics or annotated fields in a reasonably efficient way?
Finally, since I am not at all up on the Mozilla platform, RDF, XUL, CSS, etc., what would be a good resource (or resources) for me to start learning this?
Many thanks.
Thanks to MBCook (the parent post to your reply) for backing me up a bit here.
I would like to think that I have a clue, being somewhat technically proficient, but not being completely up-to-date on all technologies.
I'm sorry for offending your sensibilities with my question to Ask Slashdot, but I fail to see how it particularly differs from being a question about "how to go about something". I'm not asking for someone to do this for me (although it would be easier on me if they did:-). As I said, I am somewhat technically proficient, and I do know my way around programming, but I am not up-to-date on everything. My question was more to elicit suggestions from anyone who has done anything similar as to what the best way to focus my energies would be. Why should I reinvent the wheel if someone else has already done this? Why shouldn't I try to learn from the experience of others rather than spending months going down blind alleys and having to either scrap everything or create some godawful monster that doesn't do what is wanted? As I said in my post, the data in this application is the important thing; I'd prefer spending my time working on the data than trying to figure out the implementation.
I'm sorry that you seem to feel I made a mistake by thinking that Slashdot was a place to go to learn where to learn how to do something. While the bulk of the answers have not been that useful, there have been a few people who have given me pointers that I will be following up on (many thanks to them), and I appreciate the time that they have tried to save me from going down implementation dead ends.
Thanks for the tips on databases. I'll look into it.
Sorry for my confusion on the database vs. web server security issue. I realize that a local web server is probably just as risky. The idea of using a web browser as frontend is tempting (cuts out a lot of effort), but if it means having to set up a local web server, then it's not as nice looking... As I said, I want to have an application that makes as little impact on a user's computer as possible, and if I can avoid setting up any new services, then great!
As for the importance of the implementation vs. the data format, I do intend to make this as open as possible. However, I need to have a good implementation in the first place, since the intended audience for this is not necessarily that technical.
Thanks for you suggestions.
You're right. I didn't say anything about this being a web service.
Contrary to the popular opinion that seems to be being voiced here, the songs in the database will not be current pop songs, and I will be trying my best to make sure that no copyrights are being violated. The lyrics and rest of the song information will be pre-entered into the database, and there is no question of the user entering anything in themselves.
Umm... You did read my post, didn't you? This is not going to be a web service - it should be run locally on a user's computer from a CD or DVD.
As for your concern about whether or not I am "onto a winner", I appreciate the thought, but it doesn't really matter, and I would prefer some suggestions on the software implementation to commiserations.
Umm... Not all music lyrics are copyrighted. And, as I said elsewhere, the bulk of the songs I am going to be using are no longer (if they ever were) under copyright. Or I will be going through the appropriate hoops for licensing.
Also, this is not going to be a web service, so hosting doesn't enter into it at all.
Any insights into how best to set up the software rather than nitpicking on the data?
Thanks.
Nope. Web service is out. Or, at least, it cuts out the requirement that this be able to run as a standalone app on a system that is not connected to the Internet.
Sorry to spoil your day, but I'm not planning on violating anyone's copyright here. I won't bother thanking you for automatically assuming that that was my plan.
The songs that I will be including in my application are going to be either public domain, or else (hopefully) properly searched out and licensed. Part of the idea of using OSS is to help keep costs down and provide more time / opportunity / funds for making sure that everything is done properly.
If you have any suggestions as to the best way to go about setting up the software, I would appreciate them. If you just want to kvetch about the content of the database, then I would prefer not to hear it...
Slashdot Mirror
Apparently in Japan, many foods (including Diet Coke) are sweetened with stevia instead of sugar or aspartame. Stevia is a natural herbal sweetener which is something like 300x sweeter than sugar. Unfortunately, as this article says (http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/food/ste via/index.html), it is illegal in North America as a food additive because the FDA and Health Canada have not yet approved it as such. More information about stevia can be found at http://www.stevia.net/
As for changing the attitude of employers, it's not likely to happen. Employers enjoy getting as much work for as little outlay as they can, and once they burn people out they feel no qualms about getting rid of "the deadweight".
Thanks, both for the useful information and for the assumption that I am not intending to break copyright. Your described setup sounds like what I am looking for - something that has the database and browser advantages without having to set up local servers. Just a few questions. How well would this work with non-Mozilla-based browsers (such as Opera or Internet Explorer)? Unfortunately, not everyone has Mozilla or Firefox or..., and requiring someone to change browsers could be a roadblock to them. What sort of performance would this give for data access? Comparable to database? And would this allow for arbitrary text string searches in any of the lyrics or annotated fields in a reasonably efficient way? Finally, since I am not at all up on the Mozilla platform, RDF, XUL, CSS, etc., what would be a good resource (or resources) for me to start learning this? Many thanks.
Thanks to MBCook (the parent post to your reply) for backing me up a bit here. I would like to think that I have a clue, being somewhat technically proficient, but not being completely up-to-date on all technologies. I'm sorry for offending your sensibilities with my question to Ask Slashdot, but I fail to see how it particularly differs from being a question about "how to go about something". I'm not asking for someone to do this for me (although it would be easier on me if they did :-). As I said, I am somewhat technically proficient, and I do know my way around programming, but I am not up-to-date on everything. My question was more to elicit suggestions from anyone who has done anything similar as to what the best way to focus my energies would be. Why should I reinvent the wheel if someone else has already done this? Why shouldn't I try to learn from the experience of others rather than spending months going down blind alleys and having to either scrap everything or create some godawful monster that doesn't do what is wanted? As I said in my post, the data in this application is the important thing; I'd prefer spending my time working on the data than trying to figure out the implementation.
I'm sorry that you seem to feel I made a mistake by thinking that Slashdot was a place to go to learn where to learn how to do something. While the bulk of the answers have not been that useful, there have been a few people who have given me pointers that I will be following up on (many thanks to them), and I appreciate the time that they have tried to save me from going down implementation dead ends.
Thanks for the tips on databases. I'll look into it. Sorry for my confusion on the database vs. web server security issue. I realize that a local web server is probably just as risky. The idea of using a web browser as frontend is tempting (cuts out a lot of effort), but if it means having to set up a local web server, then it's not as nice looking... As I said, I want to have an application that makes as little impact on a user's computer as possible, and if I can avoid setting up any new services, then great! As for the importance of the implementation vs. the data format, I do intend to make this as open as possible. However, I need to have a good implementation in the first place, since the intended audience for this is not necessarily that technical. Thanks for you suggestions.
You're right. I didn't say anything about this being a web service. Contrary to the popular opinion that seems to be being voiced here, the songs in the database will not be current pop songs, and I will be trying my best to make sure that no copyrights are being violated. The lyrics and rest of the song information will be pre-entered into the database, and there is no question of the user entering anything in themselves.
Umm... You did read my post, didn't you? This is not going to be a web service - it should be run locally on a user's computer from a CD or DVD. As for your concern about whether or not I am "onto a winner", I appreciate the thought, but it doesn't really matter, and I would prefer some suggestions on the software implementation to commiserations.
Umm... Not all music lyrics are copyrighted. And, as I said elsewhere, the bulk of the songs I am going to be using are no longer (if they ever were) under copyright. Or I will be going through the appropriate hoops for licensing. Also, this is not going to be a web service, so hosting doesn't enter into it at all. Any insights into how best to set up the software rather than nitpicking on the data? Thanks.
Nope. Web service is out. Or, at least, it cuts out the requirement that this be able to run as a standalone app on a system that is not connected to the Internet.
Sorry to spoil your day, but I'm not planning on violating anyone's copyright here. I won't bother thanking you for automatically assuming that that was my plan. The songs that I will be including in my application are going to be either public domain, or else (hopefully) properly searched out and licensed. Part of the idea of using OSS is to help keep costs down and provide more time / opportunity / funds for making sure that everything is done properly. If you have any suggestions as to the best way to go about setting up the software, I would appreciate them. If you just want to kvetch about the content of the database, then I would prefer not to hear it...