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2000/10/25 [Academia/GradSchool] UID:19558 Activity:nil |
10/24 What is a good score on the GRE? I'm looking to get into Cal or the Farm. I took it today and got 2200. \_ You suxor. |
2000/10/25-26 [Computer/SW/Languages/Tcl] UID:19559 Activity:kinda low |
10/24 We just bought John Ousterhout's dig, Ajuba Solutions. Wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing...? \_ We just bought a Thai hookah. Wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing...? \_ seano is that you? \_ I like hookah's. -curtis-e-bear \_ smoking bad \_ According to the Ajuba site, you're killing all their products so what the hell is the point? \_ Ousterhout is the Tcl guy, right? Sooner dead the better. \_ Tickle's weak...but I mean, it's basically BASIC, and BASIC kicks ass. So what went so horribly wrong? \_ No, only M$ Visual Basic kicks ass. TCL would kick ass if it was M$ Visual TCL. \_ #F, original BASIC has no procedures, local variables, variable declaration, pass by value, pass by reference, and a data structure. TCL has all of the above and more. The syntax of TCL is horrible, the runtime is weak due to the limitation of the data structure, but other than that it has all the basic elements of a sound programming language. Of course nowadays a good programming language is defined by how fast you can learn it and how easy you can build applications with it. \_ How can you have "local" variables with no proceedures (and presumably no separate source files) \_ Don't forget OO with OTcl and there's also Tcl/Cl. |
2000/10/25 [Politics/Domestic/California] UID:19560 Activity:high |
10/24 I bought something AS IS on eBay and it doesn't work. Is it legal (moral?) to resell it AS IS? \_ if you know it's defective and don't identify it as such, it's neither legal nor moral. -tom \_ tom's opinion deleted. \_ BS. Caveat Emptor. If you say AS IS, only someone who is a total idiot would assume that it works. If you say AS IS it may or may not work, then you cannot be held legally responsible. \_ On the legal grounds, what are you using to support that it is illegal? On moral grounds, the device was $500... is the correct moral thing to do claim that it is not in working \_ Certainly that would be correct morally. There are plenty of legal grounds for being able to collect damages from people who knowingly sell defective products. -tom condition and get what I can for it (maybe $250)? \_ tom's opinion not respected \_ Yes, but only if they do not state AS IS, (perhaps working, perhaps not). And its stupid to sell it for less than you bought it. If some sucker is willing to pay you for a broken POS more power to you. \_ say no to tom \_ look, troll, we know you're a stupid coward, but it's trivially obvious that selling known defective merchandise is actionable fraud, whether or not you say "as-is." -tom \_ In California, you are now legally required to tell a potential buyer if your house is haunted... \_ Yeah, but usually it just comes down to them saying "it worked when it shipped" and then your ass collecting the insurance money from the post office... \_ That's lying. It's illegal (insurance fraud) and immoral. |
2000/10/25 [Politics/Domestic/California, Recreation/Humor] UID:19561 Activity:nil |
10/24 Vote: User Friendly: .. Dilbert: . \_ what are these two voting for the worst comic stip of the decade? Megatokyo: . Crack-ho magzn: . (yermom, that is) Kevin and Kell (http://www.kevinandkell.com . Blondie: . |
2000/10/25-26 [Reference/Military] UID:19562 Activity:insanely high |
10/25 "Anti-Gun People Suffer Mental Condition" http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/1024-106.html You people know who you are. Also, if anyone wants an introduction to shooting at the range so they can make informed decisions, mail me. -jor \_ As I recall, the only people jor was arguing with were not endorsing banning guns, or even restricting their use... they were making fun of his nerdworld fantasy of protecting his homestead and democracy by himself with his little gun. \_ All researches have bias. The point is, one should judge the \_ Wow, a press release pointing to <DEAD>www.jpfo.org<DEAD> ("Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership" -- check out their "Ask The Rabbi" column!) *Obviously* no hidden agendas there. Thanks for pointing us to these unbiased third-party researchers selflessly leading us to THE TRUTH!!!1!! \_ All researchers have bias. The point is, one should judge the research just on it's veracity. \_ The right to keep and bare arms is essential \_ exactly what information will "shooting at the range" give us, when the problem is "shooting at the people" \_ The idea is, once you get the feel of a finely crafted firearm exploding powerfully under your control, you wont want anyone taking it away from you. \_ The right to keep and bear arms is essential \_ and the right to bare legs is even more so. hint: grammarP \_ someone keeps changing it. for the long term preservation of the republic. The surest way to enslave the populace is to disarm them. A little hint to the anti-gun crowd. Banning guns only hurts law abiding citizens, ie people who obey the law. By definition criminals don't obey the law. They will continue to have weapons, and the common man will not be able to defend himself. \_ Not true in other countries - common \_ You are a moron and a coward. It amazes me that you half-wits are always so down on people who are obviously your intellectual betters just because they don't hide it well enough. Tom is easily one of the more intelligent people who post to the motd and i'd rather read his troll than anything you have to say, mr. "I'm not smart enough to say something clever so i'll just delete other people's post". -!tom criminals have difficulty obtaining guns. We are not talking about the mafia or triad, but the grocery store robbers. \_ That's because there isn't a huge SUPPLY. Why? Because there isnt any business drive to make guns in a place where owning one is very difficult to do legally. \_ You are wrong. It is extermely easy to get a gun via extra-legal channels. And let me put it to you this way, if all the guns where in the hands of organized crime, they would be the ones knocking down grocery stores that failed to pay "protection" fees. The "common" crook would not exist. I like my freedom and ill-informed bleeding hearts will not take it from me. Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither. \_ I can just see you uttering "Freedom!" as your last word when your 10-year old kid shoot you with your .38 thinking he was playing cowboy and injun. \_ I don't own a gun, I don't have have kids and even if I did my kids would not be playing cowboys and injuns, because fighting is inappropriate for people from my caste. I chose to remain unarmed, but I should not be forced to be unarmed. A choice implies freedom, a ban is the absence of that freedom. To disarm the populace is to enslave them. \_ I disagree that banning gun is equivlanet to enslaving the people. There are lots of free democratic countries where guns are banned. Guns allow crooks to easily butcher, rape, rob, hold as hostage, enslave people from peace- loving castes like yours. If a democratic country needs to have its populace to have guns to control its government, its political system / system of have its populace have guns in order to control its government, its political system / system of checks and balance must have really broken down. \_ When only the government and the criminals have guns how do you stop them from taking your rights away? Government is a necessary evil, but it should never be trusted to put the rights of the individual before the rights of the state. The right to keep and bear arms is the only way to ensure that our freedoms cannot be taken away. \_ I don't buy that having guns available would make a difference in controlling government abuses in a established democracy like the US, with a mature system of checks and balances and a free press. \_ Organized crime is as bad or worse in the US than many countries where there is gun control. \_ Gun control only affects law abiding citizens, not criminals. Baning guns reduces freedoms and brings us all one step closer to enslavement at the hands of a few armed elitist. We must have the right to preserve our freedom by force. A second hint, when the feds have all the guns you will not be able to prevent them from taking your property and your rights. \_ We should require that guns be registered annually (like cars) or every two years. \_ tom's opinion = troll. deleted. \_ tom is an idiot, but a funny one. I think that his posts ought to remain uncensored simply for thier misguided humor content. \_ I find it amusing that this troll is not only deleting my posts, but the posts of people who agree with me, and entire threads that I participated in. No wonder he needs a gun--he's a complete coward. -tom \_ Whether or not you are right (and I don't think that you are), he should not delete your posts. \_ sure he should. tom is an idiot -- and a fat-head to boot. \_ What harm can an idiot do? |
2000/10/25-26 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/Others, Recreation/Media] UID:19563 Activity:high |
10/25 What exactly is "B-Movie"? Thx. \_ 2 interpretations: Budget Movie (low budget) or a movie they show for free when you see the A movie. \_ Sorry, what's "A movie" then? \_ the movie you paid for (like when cartoons were free because you paid for the main movie.) \_ a movie is a motion picture. duh. \_ The general usage (in the States) is "Shitty, low budget film". A corrolary to that is the increasingly popular "DTV--Direct To Video". --sowings \_ A very, very nice "new wave" band...sorta dark-sounding. Also, see the films of John Waters or Roger Corman, and maybe the live-action version of The Guyver. \_ McGuyver? \_ in some asian countries, A means Adult (porn) \_ I thought that was H as in Hentai, not A as in Adult. B doesn't have any significance (AFAIK), but R usually means Romance. \_ you mean it DOESNT mean "boobs"? \_ you would think this if you interpreted "some asian countries" as only refering to japan \_ Okay, I am a ignorant American, what countries does this refer to? \_ Japan, Indonesia and Pakistan only. \_ India isn't a Asian country but Pakistan is? Confirms what I knew all along, Indians are really WHITE not ASIAN. \_ Indians aren't white, they are Aryan / indo-European (I think). In general, they are quite dark. |
2000/10/25-26 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Languages/Functional] UID:19564 Activity:high |
10/25 Here is an interesting article about s/w. It goes against the typical silicon valley s/w mentality, and even some of the anti-female sentiment often shown on this motd: http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff.html \_ "Yet everyone complains how bad software is, with all the defects." Everyone? I personally think that software quality has increased in the past 20 years. Look at the accomplishment we've made with OS, application, database, network, etc. \_ Okay: M$ Win*, M$ Excel/Word/PowerPoint, M$ Access/FoxPro, M$ TCP/IP & IE, etc. Things have become much worse. \_ "something wrong with the way its being written" If only writers had some process of their own. \_ You don't want to know how much this software probably costs. When there's no profit on the line then things are typically done well/right. Most software companies aren't about good software but about (duh) making a profit. --dim \_ And most software companies also have competitors, both for customers and for funding. \_ Yes, we're all familiar with slashdot, thanks. \_ I worked at NASA and yes there are people that write good code there but there is little innovation. The reason that it is reliable is because each change or improvement or idea has to get approved by ~ 50 people (and most ideas don't make it through the process). The atmosphere does appeal to a lot of mothers (mine included, AI research @ Ames 13 yrs) though. They like the slow non-aggressive work enviroment. Also efficiency isn't a top priority, many programs make the worst possible use of resources in order to ensure max. reliability. And this doesn't change even when you point out that the same thing can be done faster with equal reliability, because it would be "dangerous" to change it (the reality is that it would mean that some people would have to do work, which is avoided at all costs). \_ 1) resources aren't important. In a situation like this correctness is everything. Resources are pretty damn cheap. \_ You are wrong. Resources on the shuttle are exteremely expensive. You can't just launch the latest 2GHz PV Q3A/UT FRK proc into orbit. The computer systems on the shuttle are quite slow and every cycle on them is precious. If you can do something faster then it worth doing, esp. if it is provable safe. Improvements in operational efficiency translate to longer cheaper missions. Ultimately someone has to pay for this and that is the US tax payer, if this thing gets too damn expensive it will stop flying, regardless of all that science is great and wonderful and should be done regarless of the cost bs that you see on Star Trek. 2) if it works and is BugFree(tm) them changing it IS dangerous. It means you have to go make sure there are no problems with the code and change it in the painstaking process you described before (which yes may be painful for someone used to coding in a more freeform style, but let's face it, it does work for what they want). \_ The problem is not that it is dangerous to change and test it, the problem is that beuracrats don't like change because that means they have to do work and they hate doing work. Nasa is run by inertia, a body at rest remains at rest unless otherwise compelled by an external force. And that external force needs to be pretty damn strong. The reason that there are so many women there is that they like the fact that most of the time there is nothing to do and when asked to do something they can just say that it would take too long. \_ It's all about risk versus gain. Change for the sake of change is not wise in such an environment. Further, even the smallest change can be *very* expensive considering all the testing and validation that must be redone. When there's sometimes code that's been around for 30 years and consists of millions of lines you can see why people are loathe \_ It's a four-year old article. to change it unless there are requirements to do so. It's not sloth. --dim \_ @ Ames its sloth. I routinely got, yeah we could change it or we could fix it, but I don't feel like it, I just want to surf the web and go home. We could maybe do it next month. \_ change it != fix it != optimize it \_ In the context of the code I was dealing with change|fix == optimize, basically most of the stuff ran slow and no one wanted to even clean it up, because that would get in the way of putting in a solid 7 hrs (they always take min 1 hr lunch) of playing solitare or bz or web surfing. The people described in this article probably also write in ADA. \_ until recently (not sure how the advent of RTOS's affect this) all FAA certified software for ATC was exclusively hand coded and verfied assembly code. \_ At Nasa, the shuttle guys were ADA, the aeronautics guys were FORTRAN and the AI guys were Lisp. \_its amazing the thing ever got off the ground. \_ well it was only 10 yrs late and over budget. \_ It's a four-year-old article. |
2000/10/25-26 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Computer/SW/Security] UID:19565 Activity:moderate |
10/25 http://www.pantyraider.com \_ Now why don't they have something like predicateRaider? Now that might hold my attention. \_ is that like ContextFreeGrammarRaider and LR1Raider?? \_ woo woo! \_ How about corporateRaider? That would be *interesting*. \_ almost related: http://www.phonebashing.com |