My experience has been that interfaces tend to look very nice, and underlying code tends to suck not only on group-programmer projects, but also on single programmer projects.
The conclusion that I have come to accept as the truth, or a close enough approximation, is that pointy-haired, computer illiterate bosses want a product. If a developer goes in and shows the boss or manager a really nice piece of MySQL connection code, the boss' eyes are going to glaze over and a girly tantrum is likely to emerge. However, if the same programmer shows the boss a beautiful facade (meaning a nice GUI with absolutely no guts at all), the elastic in the boss' underpants is likely to get catapulted across his overly large office (unless of course 'he' is a woman).
Once the facade is in place, the boss or manager begins itching to ship the product, so the developer(s) now have to rush to cobble together some underpinnings for their nice facade. And there you go; crap code.
Not all software projects I've worked on, or been involved with in some way, have been like this; however, more than enough of them have.
I really enjoy Lupin III. I think the puns and humor are funnier in Japanese, but the dubbed versions they are playing on Cartoon Network are not really that bad.
Whoever has done the translations has attempted to translate the same feel of the show into English; which is very hard to do since Japanese jokes, when translated, usually make absolutely no sense. Sometimes the English jokes are too corney; but at least they tried. I hope the movie remains true to the original (which it won't). Hollywood always has to bung things up for some reason.
Lupin III was derived from the character Arsene Lupin by author Maurice Leblanc. Lupin, the cartoon, being the grandson of Lupin the book. Most of these books are now out of print, but can sometimes be found at used book stores and libraries. About five years ago, Amazon.com offered a collector's version of some of them, which I bought, but I just checked and, of course, they are no longer available.
Anyway, these books were fun to read as well, though not as humorous as the Japanese animation, and Arsene Lupin doesn't have cool sidekicks like Goemon and Jigen. I just thought I'd mention it in case anyone was interested.
One more interesting bit of trivia. There was a legendary theif in Japan, back in the Edo jidai I think, named Goemon. He got away with all sorts of crimes. I'm sure that is who Goemon of Lupin III was derived from. Unfortunately for the real Goemon, he was caught and the officials of the time boiled him to death in a large pot of water; sort of like they did in the beginning of the book Shogun by James Clavell. Ouch!
When I was young, I used to make my own custom snow flakes. Well, not really, I just dyed existing ones a pleasing yellow color; or sometimes clumsily wrote my name on them. I never though about taking pictures of them and putting them on a web site though. Obviously that would have been cool thing to do.
Speaking of Jon Katz, where has he been lately? Either he doesn't post much any more, or I have become so imune to his articles that I can recall seeing one for quite a long time.
I used to work for a company who insisted that everything be done in Java. Now I work for a company who is in bed with C# and other.NETedness. I can understand standardizing on a set of tools, but I think this attitude is kind of dumb in some respects. Sometimes it feels like hammering a screw into the wall with a somewhat stale loaf of bread.
I just finished writing a front-end application at work using Python and wxPython (which is incredible I think). It would have taken me at least a week to do it in C, C++, C#, Java, or any other buzzword language, but I finished it in a little over a day using Python. My app has the added benefits of being cross-platform (Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD), it has a native look on each of these platforms, and it runs a lot faster than a Java/Swing app would.
Ideally, such a time saving technology, and those who know how to use it, would be valued. Yet somehow those pointy haired MBAs that seem to run most companies don't seem to get it.
I worked in India for a little while. Just like anywhere else, there are some people who could speak English really well, some who could get by, and some who I had to communicate with using hand signals, facial expressions, and a lot of pointing at things.
First of all, I'm all for buying the music, etc. that you use. I have an ogg collection, but I also own the CDs that they were ripped from. However, the music industry is wanting too much control and power, and I think people need to fight against that.
Having said that...
There is an easy consumer countermeasure to this corporate pressure. Everybody needs to upload and download from P2P constantly from now on. The cable company will not disconnect ALL of their customers, and if they do, so what. Use a different service.
Of course, most people don't have it in them fight for anything anymore.
I can get the latest version of Corel's WordPerfect Office suite from several local vendors for $20.00 if I buy a piece of qualifying hardware (A floppy drive - $11.00). If any average customer can buy Corel's suite for that, I would imagine Gateway is paying less.
With MS Office costing so much, I wonder why more people and companies don't switch over to WordPerfect Office? I think that Excel is a little better than Quatro Pro, but with the exception of the email program (which absolutely sucks) the rest of programs that make up the WordPerfect Office suite are at least as good if not better than their Microsoft counterparts.
Since word processing is the most used application of any suite, and since WordPerfect is far better and cheaper than Word, it only makes sense.
Note the key difference: you were recording from ${publicly available source} for your own personal use - Legal; You distribute copies of the recording - Illegal.
You miss my point. Actually, most of the comments here have missed my point. Radio is not broadcast solely to you and then you illegally distribute it to your friends. It is broadcast to EVERYONE at the same time. Therefore, if somebody wants to hear a song, they can call the radio station and ask them to play it. When the radio station does, then they can record it. In effect, music is free. This isn't the case with current commercial software products (notice I'm not talking about freeware, open source, etc.)
It is possible for the whole of the United States (which is where I'm talking about) to record the same song off the radio. This is not true by any stretch of the imagination of software. Radio is free, comercial software isn't. Therefore, I don't see how you can logically draw a parallell between the piracy of something that isn't and never has been broadcast freely (such as current Microsoft products) to something that is broadcast freely to everybody everyday.
I have a recumbent bicycle and it is great for commuting; a lot more comfortable too. If I were to crash into something head on, I would hit feet first, which is my personal preference to flipping over the handlebars and having my head crash through somebody's windsheild.
Actually, the only time I've ever been hit by a car was in Japan and I was riding an upright bicycle. The car's fender smashed my ankle against the frame of the bike. If I had been on a recumbent, I don't think I would have been hurt as bad since my whole body would have been above the fender.
My point is that there are accidents in which it may be better for you to be on an upright bike, and there are accidents where it may be better if you're on a recumbent. I don't think either one is safer than the other.
I really hate when people compare the sharing of mp3 files to software piracy. Why? Because the two are totally different.
Music has been broadcast over the airwaves for years and years and then some more years. For most of those years, there has existed the technology to copy those songs onto cassette tapes and other mediums and listen to those songs at a later time; and numerous times.
Growing up, I always recorded my favorite songs off the radio; and I believe, just like recording a TV show, it was perfectly fine for me to do so. In fact, wasn't it Sony, one of the companies that is now whining about music sharing, that sold me the ability to record radio broadcasts? Why, I believe it was!
Since the radio reaches nearly every corner of our country and nearly everone owns the technology to record that music, I don't see a difference between that and sharing an mp3 file with your friends, other than you get to cut out the retarded DJ who always talks over the song like some dimwit fart.
A couple more interesting things to note, in Japan, they have stores that will rent you CDs, for a couple hundred yen, in much the same way American's rent VHS and DVD movies. Those same stores also sell very specialized cassette tapes so you can record the CD instead of having to pay around $30.00 for it. Since the stores are not owned by the record companies, I don't see a difference between this and sharing mp3s with your friends (other than you've cut out the middle man).
Also, you most public libraries will loan you music CDs for free.
On the otherhand, software has NEVER been broadcast over public airwaves or freely distributed in your public library. Nor are there stores that will rent you software and then the media to use to copy it. Nor has the means to copy software ever been commercially provided with the copying of software being its primary marketed function.
I think that the record industry is too damn stupid to provide their customers with a product in the form their customers demand and I think they are using an apples to oranges comparison of software piracy to sharing music to force the governments to pass laws that maintain the status quo of their current, obviously undesirable, business plans.
And all of that is why I hate hearing music sharing compared to software piracy.
"your "voice" (er.. audio) just becomes bits that your programs can manipulate before sending."
I can't wait until someone creates a cell-VoIP-phone virus that scrambles your sentences into vulgarities and profanities whenever you try to call your mom.
She does delete posts. I've had a couple of mine removed when I disagreed with her. At least my criticism is base on personal experience and fact. Not on screenshots of OSNews.
I don't know how many of you frequent OSNews, but Eugenia is always very critical of Linux, Java, OS X, or anything not Microsoft or BeOS.
I personally think it is poor reporting to post such a rancorous review of a program based entirely on screenshots. In her forum section, she admits to having never used YaST, so the review is based entirely on nescience, sensationalism and a dislike for anything Linux (although she regularly denies it).
Eugenia has a bad habit of telling her readers to f**k off and die and deleting posts she doesn't like, so it won't do any good to try and reason with her to be more intellectually honest in her articles. It's best just to take this horrid review with a grain of salt.
YaST is a very good tool, and from the screenshots, they have fixed some things that needed to be fixed. It looks very good to me and I look forward to trying it out when 8.1 is released.
I can't wait to hear, "This is your captain speaking. Please fasten your seatbelts and put your head between your knees. I'm going to change the batteries now."
Why is it that the average nobody, wannabe-intelligensia of the world always have to find some foible to exploit to make themselves feel big?
All I can say is that when we talk of Bruce Perens, most people know who he is. When we talk about MisterBlister and this particular Anonymous Coward, most people imagine a pimple faced, semi-literate, athletic supporter who is still in highschool.
Please go back to your obscure inconsequentialness.
All you have to do is add "MS" to the front of all the standard Java classes, methods, and member variables, and run your code through a C# compiler isn't it?
I have owned several Sharp Zaurus PDAs starting back in the 80's (and yes, I traveled to Akihabara to get all but one of them; the 5500.) Of course they weren't Linux based until recently, but they were all great. I used to like the little cards you could buy for the older ones; they had some great games on them.
This new model lacks some of the things I like about the 5500, but I think it still looks pretty good. By the way, does TheKompany make localized apps? TheKompany's applications are really what put my 5500 over the top.
Discovery Channel had a segment on this over a year ago. They even showed some nice close up simulations of the hairs themselves.
I was hoping that day old unshaved faces, armpits and legs could do the same thing for humans, but was sadly disappointed (although with the added suction of an armpit I did come close).
Slashdot Mirror
My experience has been that interfaces tend to look very nice, and underlying code tends to suck not only on group-programmer projects, but also on single programmer projects.
The conclusion that I have come to accept as the truth, or a close enough approximation, is that pointy-haired, computer illiterate bosses want a product. If a developer goes in and shows the boss or manager a really nice piece of MySQL connection code, the boss' eyes are going to glaze over and a girly tantrum is likely to emerge. However, if the same programmer shows the boss a beautiful facade (meaning a nice GUI with absolutely no guts at all), the elastic in the boss' underpants is likely to get catapulted across his overly large office (unless of course 'he' is a woman).
Once the facade is in place, the boss or manager begins itching to ship the product, so the developer(s) now have to rush to cobble together some underpinnings for their nice facade. And there you go; crap code.
Not all software projects I've worked on, or been involved with in some way, have been like this; however, more than enough of them have.
I really enjoy Lupin III. I think the puns and humor are funnier in Japanese, but the dubbed versions they are playing on Cartoon Network are not really that bad.
Whoever has done the translations has attempted to translate the same feel of the show into English; which is very hard to do since Japanese jokes, when translated, usually make absolutely no sense. Sometimes the English jokes are too corney; but at least they tried. I hope the movie remains true to the original (which it won't). Hollywood always has to bung things up for some reason.
Lupin III was derived from the character Arsene Lupin by author Maurice Leblanc. Lupin, the cartoon, being the grandson of Lupin the book. Most of these books are now out of print, but can sometimes be found at used book stores and libraries. About five years ago, Amazon.com offered a collector's version of some of them, which I bought, but I just checked and, of course, they are no longer available.
Anyway, these books were fun to read as well, though not as humorous as the Japanese animation, and Arsene Lupin doesn't have cool sidekicks like Goemon and Jigen. I just thought I'd mention it in case anyone was interested.
One more interesting bit of trivia. There was a legendary theif in Japan, back in the Edo jidai I think, named Goemon. He got away with all sorts of crimes. I'm sure that is who Goemon of Lupin III was derived from. Unfortunately for the real Goemon, he was caught and the officials of the time boiled him to death in a large pot of water; sort of like they did in the beginning of the book Shogun by James Clavell. Ouch!
Sorry about the rambling.
That is a very interesting web site.
When I was young, I used to make my own custom snow flakes. Well, not really, I just dyed existing ones a pleasing yellow color; or sometimes clumsily wrote my name on them. I never though about taking pictures of them and putting them on a web site though. Obviously that would have been cool thing to do.
most notably Jon Katz's Hellmouth series.
Speaking of Jon Katz, where has he been lately? Either he doesn't post much any more, or I have become so imune to his articles that I can recall seeing one for quite a long time.
I used to work for a company who insisted that everything be done in Java. Now I work for a company who is in bed with C# and other .NETedness. I can understand standardizing on a set of tools, but I think this attitude is kind of dumb in some respects. Sometimes it feels like hammering a screw into the wall with a somewhat stale loaf of bread.
I just finished writing a front-end application at work using Python and wxPython (which is incredible I think). It would have taken me at least a week to do it in C, C++, C#, Java, or any other buzzword language, but I finished it in a little over a day using Python. My app has the added benefits of being cross-platform (Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD), it has a native look on each of these platforms, and it runs a lot faster than a Java/Swing app would.
Ideally, such a time saving technology, and those who know how to use it, would be valued. Yet somehow those pointy haired MBAs that seem to run most companies don't seem to get it.
I worked in India for a little while. Just like anywhere else, there are some people who could speak English really well, some who could get by, and some who I had to communicate with using hand signals, facial expressions, and a lot of pointing at things.
First of all, I'm all for buying the music, etc. that you use. I have an ogg collection, but I also own the CDs that they were ripped from. However, the music industry is wanting too much control and power, and I think people need to fight against that.
Having said that...
There is an easy consumer countermeasure to this corporate pressure. Everybody needs to upload and download from P2P constantly from now on. The cable company will not disconnect ALL of their customers, and if they do, so what. Use a different service.
Of course, most people don't have it in them fight for anything anymore.
Sorry, I meant platforms.
Great! Now there will be even more platform on which I can ignore this stupid technology.
I can get the latest version of Corel's WordPerfect Office suite from several local vendors for $20.00 if I buy a piece of qualifying hardware (A floppy drive - $11.00). If any average customer can buy Corel's suite for that, I would imagine Gateway is paying less.
With MS Office costing so much, I wonder why more people and companies don't switch over to WordPerfect Office? I think that Excel is a little better than Quatro Pro, but with the exception of the email program (which absolutely sucks) the rest of programs that make up the WordPerfect Office suite are at least as good if not better than their Microsoft counterparts.
Since word processing is the most used application of any suite, and since WordPerfect is far better and cheaper than Word, it only makes sense.
Mooooo.
FARC'n iceholes.
Note the key difference: you were recording from ${publicly available source} for your own personal use - Legal; You distribute copies of the recording - Illegal.
You miss my point. Actually, most of the comments here have missed my point. Radio is not broadcast solely to you and then you illegally distribute it to your friends. It is broadcast to EVERYONE at the same time. Therefore, if somebody wants to hear a song, they can call the radio station and ask them to play it. When the radio station does, then they can record it. In effect, music is free. This isn't the case with current commercial software products (notice I'm not talking about freeware, open source, etc.) It is possible for the whole of the United States (which is where I'm talking about) to record the same song off the radio. This is not true by any stretch of the imagination of software. Radio is free, comercial software isn't. Therefore, I don't see how you can logically draw a parallell between the piracy of something that isn't and never has been broadcast freely (such as current Microsoft products) to something that is broadcast freely to everybody everyday.
I have a recumbent bicycle and it is great for commuting; a lot more comfortable too. If I were to crash into something head on, I would hit feet first, which is my personal preference to flipping over the handlebars and having my head crash through somebody's windsheild.
Actually, the only time I've ever been hit by a car was in Japan and I was riding an upright bicycle. The car's fender smashed my ankle against the frame of the bike. If I had been on a recumbent, I don't think I would have been hurt as bad since my whole body would have been above the fender.
My point is that there are accidents in which it may be better for you to be on an upright bike, and there are accidents where it may be better if you're on a recumbent. I don't think either one is safer than the other.
I really hate when people compare the sharing of mp3 files to software piracy. Why? Because the two are totally different.
Music has been broadcast over the airwaves for years and years and then some more years. For most of those years, there has existed the technology to copy those songs onto cassette tapes and other mediums and listen to those songs at a later time; and numerous times.
Growing up, I always recorded my favorite songs off the radio; and I believe, just like recording a TV show, it was perfectly fine for me to do so. In fact, wasn't it Sony, one of the companies that is now whining about music sharing, that sold me the ability to record radio broadcasts? Why, I believe it was!
Since the radio reaches nearly every corner of our country and nearly everone owns the technology to record that music, I don't see a difference between that and sharing an mp3 file with your friends, other than you get to cut out the retarded DJ who always talks over the song like some dimwit fart.
A couple more interesting things to note, in Japan, they have stores that will rent you CDs, for a couple hundred yen, in much the same way American's rent VHS and DVD movies. Those same stores also sell very specialized cassette tapes so you can record the CD instead of having to pay around $30.00 for it. Since the stores are not owned by the record companies, I don't see a difference between this and sharing mp3s with your friends (other than you've cut out the middle man).
Also, you most public libraries will loan you music CDs for free.
On the otherhand, software has NEVER been broadcast over public airwaves or freely distributed in your public library. Nor are there stores that will rent you software and then the media to use to copy it. Nor has the means to copy software ever been commercially provided with the copying of software being its primary marketed function.
I think that the record industry is too damn stupid to provide their customers with a product in the form their customers demand and I think they are using an apples to oranges comparison of software piracy to sharing music to force the governments to pass laws that maintain the status quo of their current, obviously undesirable, business plans.
And all of that is why I hate hearing music sharing compared to software piracy.
"your "voice" (er .. audio) just becomes bits that your programs can manipulate before sending."
I can't wait until someone creates a cell-VoIP-phone virus that scrambles your sentences into vulgarities and profanities whenever you try to call your mom.
She does delete posts. I've had a couple of mine removed when I disagreed with her. At least my criticism is base on personal experience and fact. Not on screenshots of OSNews.
I don't know how many of you frequent OSNews, but Eugenia is always very critical of Linux, Java, OS X, or anything not Microsoft or BeOS.
I personally think it is poor reporting to post such a rancorous review of a program based entirely on screenshots. In her forum section, she admits to having never used YaST, so the review is based entirely on nescience, sensationalism and a dislike for anything Linux (although she regularly denies it).
Eugenia has a bad habit of telling her readers to f**k off and die and deleting posts she doesn't like, so it won't do any good to try and reason with her to be more intellectually honest in her articles. It's best just to take this horrid review with a grain of salt.
YaST is a very good tool, and from the screenshots, they have fixed some things that needed to be fixed. It looks very good to me and I look forward to trying it out when 8.1 is released.
I can't wait to hear, "This is your captain speaking. Please fasten your seatbelts and put your head between your knees. I'm going to change the batteries now."
Why is it that the average nobody, wannabe-intelligensia of the world always have to find some foible to exploit to make themselves feel big?
All I can say is that when we talk of Bruce Perens, most people know who he is. When we talk about MisterBlister and this particular Anonymous Coward, most people imagine a pimple faced, semi-literate, athletic supporter who is still in highschool.
Please go back to your obscure inconsequentialness.
Your Japanese is incorrect. It should be a katakana "ku" at the end, not a "ke".
Just thought I'd let you know.
You idiot!!! It was like a joke and stuff.
Why would anyone write a book about that?
All you have to do is add "MS" to the front of all the standard Java classes, methods, and member variables, and run your code through a C# compiler isn't it?
I have owned several Sharp Zaurus PDAs starting back in the 80's (and yes, I traveled to Akihabara to get all but one of them; the 5500.) Of course they weren't Linux based until recently, but they were all great. I used to like the little cards you could buy for the older ones; they had some great games on them.
This new model lacks some of the things I like about the 5500, but I think it still looks pretty good. By the way, does TheKompany make localized apps? TheKompany's applications are really what put my 5500 over the top.
Discovery Channel had a segment on this over a year ago. They even showed some nice close up simulations of the hairs themselves.
I was hoping that day old unshaved faces, armpits and legs could do the same thing for humans, but was sadly disappointed (although with the added suction of an armpit I did come close).
I forgot to mention, the best part about the condoms you could buy were the names, such as Ronnie Wrinkles, and the Engrish sayings on them.