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Comment Re:So don't buy Nest thermostats. (Score 1) 167

Wow, this one works with millivolt systems, nice. The Nest doesn't, even though I have the required 24VAC supply already wired but disused (a very old t-stat used it, current unit is battery powered). The only way I could do it with a Nest is clobber some sort of relay system to drive the boiler. The only downside is that the Cyberstat doesn't appear to have a battery backup. Millivolt systems have the advantage of providing heat without needing external utility power.

Comment Re:I strongly agree (Score 1) 247

by NJRoadfan (#46840719) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Books for a Comp Sci Graduate Student?

After a several year hiatus away from computer stuff I agree completely. I gradated CS in 2002. There was much more priority given to imperative programming and arrays for everything than there should have been. Most of the lecturers were brainwashed by terms like "object oriented is the future", "extreme programming" and other such nonsense because it's "kewl". We did some Prolog but not nearly enough.

Of that list, maybe object oriented programming is important to "know". Otherwise computer science courses should be treated as language and platform agnostic, and only focus on stuff like data structures, arrays, etc. Basic theory that is applicable to any language.

It wasn't emphasized. We did no lisp! or Scheme.. It's sad that I'm more mature than many of those guys despite being younger.

I never did any LISP programming in school either. Oddly enough the language that always fascinated me was Postscript. Its amazing what a printer page description language is capable of.

Comment Re:Better tablets out there for your money (Score 1) 386

by NJRoadfan (#46832037) Attached to: iPad Fever Is Officially Cooling

Personally, I bought the Surface 2 (not pro) last Christmas, and I like it a lot more than my wife's iPad. The expandable storage, plus again, not having to buy apps for things that should be standard, like playing videos from a network share, make it a good choice. I also like the UI a lot better than iPad or Android, and like the fact that I can open a command prompt or run a powershell script if I want to. The lack of apps is probably the only downfall, but I find that I'm still able to do everything I want to do on a tablet. There are many games I can't play, but there's enough games to keep me entertained.

The lack of playing files from a network share out of the box is likely Apple ecosystem lock-in. They want you to use iCloud. Meanwhile every cheapo Android device usually has support for DLNA.

The Windows RT tablet's days are likely numbered with the crop of new Atom based Windows 8.1 tablets that are coming out. Being able to run off the shelf Win32 stuff helps their case. A full 8.1 tablet has no problems connecting to VPNs for example.

Comment Re:Google Earth (Score 4, Informative) 25

by NJRoadfan (#46825135) Attached to: Google Opens Up Street View Archives From 2007 To Today
The Google Earth feature was for satellite imagery. This new feature is for Street View images. Sadly it won't be of much use around here as the original 2007 photos are the latest available in many areas! I guess they are trying to give people an excuse to switch to the mostly broken new Google Maps interface.

Comment Re:Gentrification? (Score 2) 359

by NJRoadfan (#46763315) Attached to: San Francisco's Housing Crisis Explained
The rental market is a bit distorted is many areas at the moment due to people not being able to get a mortgage (still). Locally I have seen rents in the $1200-1500 range for a one bedroom here in Northern NJ, no wheres near NYC or a commuter rail line (those go in the $2000 range). That is quite high for this area considering there is no shortage of housing. Looking at the pricing of two-three bedrooms, you might as well buy a house as the mortgage payment will be lower or about the same each month.

Comment Re:Broke for me... (Score 1) 575

by NJRoadfan (#46755163) Attached to: Microsoft Confirms It Is Dropping Windows 8.1 Support
Use an ei.cfg to bypass the product key entry OR seek out the "generic install keys". It'll let you get Windows 8.1 installed (if you can, grab the ISOs with Update 1 already integrated), afterwards you can change the key to your Media Center key using slmgr and activate Windows. Still don't know why MS didn't bother to make Windows 8 keys universal with 8.1 images, its really annoying.

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