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Open Source

Journal Journal: Yet another open source failure 14

Trying to print an envelope address in openoffice under linux? What a waste of time.

Do the people who code this sh*t actually ever use it? Or do they never use anything else, so they simply don't know that it's possible to do better?

The Internet

Journal Journal: Every browser is *still* broken. 17

After 15 years, we still don't have an un-b0rked browser. CSS 2.1 was done in 1997, and yet firefox, opera, chrome, arora - they all render differently for non-trivial layouts.

15 years, and they still can't get the basics right. It means that the problem is not the implementation, but the underlying concepts that are flawed in fundamental ways.

And there's no blaming Microsoft or Apple for this fiasco.

Comment Re:I vote troll. (Score 1) 203

In reality, if you have software which cannot make you money directly, it's a very good candidate for making open-source

... because the world really really needs yet another bloated "massive framework" that will take more time to bang into shape^W^W^Wcustomize than doing it from scratch ...

The "I'll give the code away and make money off support" model rarely works.

Programming

Journal Journal: NoSQL+ sprintf() == better. 7

Old technology doesn't die - it get re-implemented when newer ways get too bloated and turn everything it touches into Beavis and Butthead.

In the dying days of the last century (awk! - how time flies) I used to do web cgi using c, same as a lot of people. Used malloc and sprintfs() to insert variables into a "template" and then printf()s to output. It was easy to track memory allocation for such cases, so the whole "OMG you'll leak memory" issue was a non-starter.

Operating Systems

Journal Journal: Bad news for Windows and Linux 9

Remember how Apple captured a generation of users by concentrating on getting their computers into schools? You ain't seen nothin' yet.

One trend that I haven't heard a peep about is how mothers and grandmothers are using their iPhones and iPads to play with their kids. I'm not talking grade-school children, but babies under a year old. I have yet to see a parent do this (play with their baby) with a non-iOS device.

User Journal

Journal Journal: I guess I'm PMSing a bit ... 6

... or that I'm fed up that I went to check my email after spending most of the day away from the computer, and I get yet another SEO con artist from India sending more spam offering their crappy services - stuff anyone who can throw together a few meta tags and a sitemap.xml file can duplicate.

So corporatesales@web-seo-proposals.in got the following reply:

Medicine

Journal Journal: Good news, bad news ... 7

The good news - doctors visit yesterday, and got the results from my latest labs. It turns out that going off that evil blood pressure medication was a smart move - my bp is lower now than when I was on it. He asked what I was doing, and I told him that every once in a while I would stop and remember to just "clear my head and RELAX!!! NOW!!!! DAMMI!!! :-)"

Comment Re:Google is trying to find out. HARD. (Score 1) 2

Thanks for the feedback. The only "case studies" I found were limited to really small potatoes - like "every $ spent generated $5 of revenue" - but the totals were risible - something that didn't justify the time, even at a fraction of the minimum wage (not to mention that revenue != profit. If your profit margin was < 20%, you were losing money - and even at 20%, what's the point of changing 4 quarters for a dollar?)

One site boasted of a 4,400% net return. Sounds good, until you look at what it was. $30 ad spend to sell a dog for $1,400. Not exactly something you can repeat on a daily basis. Twice a year if you're lucky (and the dog's not). And no follow-up on how much it cost to sell the next dog (a year later, despite updates to other stats in the "study", that figure wasn't - so it's safe to guess that it was a one-shot affair, and that any money spent after just inflated the original cost).

Facebook

Journal Journal: I keep hearing these social media claims, but no hard proof. 2

We've all encountered those "web designers" who claim that you need facebook, twitter, whatever "social media web integration". And yet, we all know that you can buy facebook fans for as low as 500 for a buck, that you can buy twitter followers, you can buy google+ friends, you can buy web traffic to give any site a temporary artificial boost and make it look like the social media gimmick is working its magic ...

But where are the hard statistics?

It's funny.  Laugh.

Journal Journal: [tt] Poll of the Day - Who do YOU trust more? A Bakers Dozen 13

Trust is a funny thing ... takes time to build up, and only a second to destroy. So, in each of these pairs, who do you trust more, and why? I know, some these are like that definition of conflicted feelings - watching your brand new car go over the cliff with your mother-in-law at the wheel ... others are a Hobson's Choice .... but saying "neither" doesn't count.

Comment Re:so it begins (Score 1) 194

Guess what - sliding sideways increases your chance of stopping, rather than just rolling through the intersection and getting t-boned. And no, ABS does not stop vehicles faster - and drivers with abs are more likely to be killed in crashes.

. When braking on dry or wet roads your stopping distance will be about the same as with conventional brakes.
You should allow for a longer stopping distance with ABS than for conventional brakes when driving on gravel, slush, and snow. This is because the rotating tire will stay on top of this low traction road surface covering, and effectively "float" on this boundary layer.
A non ABS braked vehicle can lock its tires and create a snow plow effect in front of the tires which helps slow the vehicle. These locked tires can often find more traction below this boundary layer.

Snow under pressure sticks to ice better than frozen rubber does. You want the tire to stop rotating so it can build up a 1/2 layer of snow.

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