Comment No surprize (Score 1) 553
...that the creator of C++ runs Windows. C++ is a barely-stomach-able OO implementation, and Windows is a barely-usable GUI & OS. I look forward to using neither, but often must do so.
Comment No RPN (Score 1) 313
A calculator without RPN is like a computer that only runs Windows.
Comment Software, not hardware needs help (Score 1) 352
Microsoft's problem is with software more than hardware. The Windows phones may not have been as slick as an iPhone, but the hardware sufficed in terms of durability, phone quality and screen. What did not suffice was/is the software, and I believe that is why Apple walked away with the smart phone market despite Microsoft's much earlier presence. Microsoft has existed in an environment for 30+ years in which poor or barely-passable software could lead to tremendous success. Those days are THANKFULLY over. Do they realize this? Or, just as Ringo Star claimed to be the world's best drummer (by association to the worlds most prevalent band) do Microsoft managers walk around confidently trumpeting that Windows is the greatest OS in the world?
WD, Intel, Corsair, Kingston, Plextor SSDs Collide 56
J. Dzhugashvili writes "New SSDs just keep coming out from all corners of the market, and keeping track of all of them isn't the easiest job in the world. Good thing SSD roundups pop up every once in a while. This time, Western Digital's recently launched SiliconEdge Blue solid-state drive has been compared against new entrants from Corsair, Kingston, and Plextor. The newcomers faced off against not just each other, but also Intel's famous X25-M G2, WD's new VelociRaptor VR200M mechanical hard drive, and a plain-old WD Caviar Black 2TB thrown in for good measure. Who came out on top? Priced at about the same level, the WD and Plextor drives each seem to have deal-breaking performance weaknesses. The Kingston drive is more affordable than the rest, but it yielded poor IOMeter results. In the end, the winner appeared to be Corsair's Nova V128, which had similar all-around performance as Intel's 160GB X25-M G2 but with a slightly lower capacity and a more attractive price." Thanks to that summary, you might not need to wade through all 10 of the pages into which the linked article's been split.
Comment Re:Still Overpriced? (Score 1) 411
The day that I can buy a non-Mac laptop that has a slick, polished, Unix-ish OS in a quiet, pleasing metal form factor is the day I even think about caring about cheaper.
Comment 'Baddies' (Score 1) 577
Please do not use the word 'baddies'.
Comment Beware... (Score 1) 293
My job is to code. I had a neighbor that worked in a paint factory. He got hurt, and went to school to learn software. Pretty soon, he's coming home talking to me about UML / Booch and other esoteric OOP topics that I barely had a grasp of. I thought, gee, wow, it is amazing to see how fast a blue collar guy can come up to speed. But then it all kind of fizzled out. And I wondered for a long time why that was. How could someone get so far and be able to recite complex comp-sci topics and then give up?
And the answer is, there are (at least) 2 components to being a s/w developer. You need to be able to think and analyze and understand. But you also need to be able to - and more importantly - slog it out to make it work. And it's that slogging out that - at least in my experience - is where you truly grok the information and become effective and confident and useful.
So, that's why I say 'beware'. You might be having one of those 'I know Kung Fu' moments, because you can understand your textbook. And that is a wonderful thing. But unless you cement that knowledge by actually using it - and in particular, by learning to debug hairy problems - it is at risk of floating away.
I mean, I could pick up a cutting edge cardiology book and, given a few weeks, recite and even talk intelligently about topics that most doctors wouldn't know. I could probably impress virtually all of the population with this knowledge. But, I would be a long way from being someone anyone would hire to cut someone open. Balance your book knowledge with practical knowledge. You need a residency.
Hand Written Clock 86
a3buster writes "This clock does not actually have a man inside, but a flatscreen that plays a 24-hour loop of this video by the artist watching his own clock somewhere and painstakingly erasing and re-writing each minute. This video was taken at Design Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach 2009."
Comment Re:Strange pulse stories (Score 1) 329
I'm certain that asthma medication elevates the heart rate - especially Albuterol.
Comment What do you mean 'OR'? (Score 1) 234
Holy Grail OR Delusion? A Holy Grail *is* a delusion!
Comment On balance, I'd say do it (Score 1) 834
Maybe it will be useless. Maybe you'll switch careers. Maybe you'd make more money working now than the increased pay later. Heck, in my case, I don't even have a bachelor's in CS and I do pretty well.
On the other hand, after a certain age it gets a lot harder to go back. Your time is suddenly spoken for by family, career, etc. Why take 3-4 years to finish part time at 2012 tuitions when you can knock it out in 1-2 years now?
