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| 2008/2/7-11 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:49084 Activity:low |
2/7 Hi I'd like to learn Flash. I have no UI experience but I just want to
learn for the sake for curiosity. I just want to create something that
is interactive and fun, and don't care about scalability/extensibility/
reliability/efficiency/blah-blah. What language is Flash most similar
to and how easy/difficult is it to get started (e.g. "hello world")?
-kchang
\_ I had to learn Flash from scratch on the job a few years back.
I found the tutorial that came with Flash to be amazingly
informative for the basics, and the following website had everything
I needed for programming in ActionScript (Flash's programming
language): http://www.actionscript.org/resources/articles
From zero to this in a few months:
http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~erikred/ecosystem_game_now.swf
\_ Cute. Except my whale ate my seal which wasn't good for the
seal.
\_ Thanks. I wanted to add Japanese whalers, but my boss
objected for some reason.
\_ I've never done flash but I seem to remember that actionscript
is pretty damn close to JavaScript. |
| 2008/2/7 [Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:49085 Activity:high |
2/7 Mitt-out Romney: Romney drops out:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7233537.stm
\_ San Franciscan style left wing is not MAINSTREAM America
\_ You are like a child who comes in at the middle of a movie
and demands to know what has already transpired.
\_ Middle America style right wing is not MAINSTREAM America.
See how fun this game is? Exclude everyone that you
don't like!
\_ By definition, middle america *is* the middle and therefore
mainstream.
\_ Actually, it is more like "Southern style holy roller"
is not mainstream America. Which everyone else in America
knows, but for some strange reason these people do not. |
| 2008/2/7-8 [Computer/SW/Database] UID:49086 Activity:nil |
2/7 What the hell? Is there configuration option to make mysql behave
reasonably? By "reasonably" I mean, when a user tries to put in
the wrong data type i'd like it to fail and throw an error, not just
say "hmmm, I'll just put a '0' there instead". -crebbs
mysql> desc hi;
+-------+------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-------+------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| hi | tinyint(4) | NO | | 1 | |
| bye | varchar(4) | YES | | NULL | |
+-------+------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> insert into hi (hi,bye) values ("asdf","asd");
Query OK, 1 row affected, 1 warning (0.00 sec)
mysql> select * from hi
-> ;
+----+------+
| hi | bye |
+----+------+
| 0 | asd |
+----+------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
\_ oh, and please some answer besides "apt-get install postgresql" -c
\_ Run in Strict or Traditional mode if you want it to throw an
error instead of a warning:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/server-sql-mode.html
-tom |
| 2008/2/7-11 [Science/GlobalWarming] UID:49087 Activity:kinda low |
2/7 Garbage Dump in the Ocean:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2xx234 (independent.co.uk)
\_ Before long, we'll be trawling all that plastic and
converting it to oil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization
\_ How much energy is needed to collect that waste out of the
water and haul it to a processing facility?
\_ Ah, thermal depolymerization, old news, that was
three "going to solve all energy problems" ago by now.
\_ TDPM is capable of producing oil at $80/bbl. It
wasn't economical before, now it is. Whether
there is enough available biomass to feed it or
not, it's a much better alternative than ethanol
currently is.
\_ Go look and see how well that turkey processing plant is
doing today.
\_ The problem will solve itself, and if it doesn't, we can
just move away. -dim #1 fan
\_ Yeah, I'm waiting for the Invisible Hand to clean up this mess.
\_ It's not like government prevented it. So what good is
government then? Government can't even do the jobs that it
is supposed to be good for, regulating "the commons".
\_ The Invisible Hand vs. The Tragedy of the Commons!
Round 1! Fight! |
| 2008/2/7-11 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush, Politics/Domestic/California] UID:49088 Activity:moderate |
2/7 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120241324358751455.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Biofuels actual worsen warming and other problems, while gov't mandates their use. Score another one for meddling, overbearing, incompetent government. \_ You might want to look at who's really backing biofuels. -tom \_ How is that relavent to the point being made? \_ How is that relevant to the point being made? ADM and their ilk are backing it. Many of the environmentalists (at least the organizations) have come around and realized that only tools were supporting this, but guess what, it will continue to recieve giant subsidies. -crebbs will continue to be mandated and subsidized . -crebbs \_ The issue, then, is the power of the coporation, not "meddling, overbearing government." -tom \_ Govmnt is always acting on some's behalf. Usually some large already powerful organization like a corp. The difference is that the coporation does not have the power the forcibly take my money (without getting the government to do it for them). and use it fuck shit up. Only the Govmnt has this and use it to fuck shit up. Only the Govmnt has this power, which is one of the reasons continually expanding the power of govmnt is a bad idea. (see Hayek for others (and more lucidity). It is also why the point made by top is relavent and it is not why the point made by top is relevant and it is not reasonable to try to move blame being rightfully assigned (a piss poor use of government power) to "the big evil corporations". (even if, as in this case, a particular big evil corporation certainly does share culpablility). -crebbs does share culpability). -crebbs \_ LIBERAL RANT ALERT BELOW! LIBERAL RANT! \_ Government doesn't inherently work on behalf of coroporations, although that's certainly been the case in the U.S. since Reagan took office. The more you weaken government, the less it has the ability to fight against the control of large powerful organizations. The fact that conservatives beholden to large corporate interests have been championing deregulation and lower taxes is not coincidental; it is quite intentionally meant to foster a specific pro-corporate ideology, that the purpose of the government is to protect coporate interests. -tom \_ If the government was limited to essential functions, instead of messing around with stuff like lightbulbs and fuel percentages, then corporations could not do this. Same goes for income tax shenanigans that corporations do: a simple fixed tax scheme would go a long way towards preventing those. \_ If coporations ran everything except "essential functions", we'd be worse off than we are. -tom \_ No we wouldn't. Yay! \_ Cf. Free Market in Baja California. \_ You're an idiot. \_ You're an asshat. Are we ready to talk like adults now? \_ The farm lobby? \_ Whoever cornered the corn market in Mexico? \- cornholio? \_ Isn't that guy worth more than Bill Gates now? \_ President Bush signed energy legislation in December that mandates a six-fold increase in ethanol use as a fuel to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022. See, it's all Bush's fault: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23057867 |
| 2008/2/7-10 [Uncategorized] UID:49089 Activity:nil |
2/7 Sam & Max is being reprinted:
http://www.telltalegames.com/store/samandmax-highway |
| 2008/2/7 [Uncategorized] UID:49090 Activity:insanely high |
2/7 Poll: who's debate would you want to see more of?
tom vs. dim:
tom vs. dans: .
tom vs. psb:
none of the above, these are not debates: .
reiffen vs. jblack: .
\_ Who would you like to see in a 3 on 3 or 4 on 4 debate on
libertarianism, free market ideology vs regulation, social
safety nets etc. |
| 2008/2/7 [Computer/Companies/Google] UID:49091 Activity:nil 92%like:49093 |
2/8 If you can't innovate then buy. FIFTY acquisitions later
and NOTHING to show for it.
http://fixunix.com/linux/326769-google-if-you-can-t-innovate-then-buy-fifty-acquisitions-later-nothing-show.html |
| 2008/2/7-10 [Uncategorized] UID:49092 Activity:nil |
2/8 Useless junk purged. Nearly useless junk remains to avoid 0 byte
file. |
| 2008/2/7-11 [Computer/Companies/Google] UID:49093 Activity:kinda low 92%like:49091 |
2/8 If you can't innovate then buy. FIFTY acquisitions later
and NOTHING to show for it.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2hw3d8 (fixunix.com)
\_ Most of these seem to have been implemented or integrated into
Google offerings; why do you say there's nothing to show for it?
Among the acquisitions:
Dejanews (became Google Groups)
Blogger
Picasa
Various mapping software used in Maps/Earth
Various advertising firms (including Doubleclick)
Various search firms
YouTube
Apps (Writely, SketchUp)
Which of those is "nothing"?
-tom
\_ yawn. They are all nothing. In fact, other than patent search
and gmail imap I am hard pressed to think of single thing
googhell does that is actually any good. And the whole text
ads thing is TOTALLY annoying. If only adblock plus could block
them.
\_ Google maps.
\_ so which search engine do you use? what mapping service?
\_ I use yahoo or ask for search and yahoo or mapquest
for maps. I esp. like the !amazon [search term] feature
that yahoo has.
\_ OK, you're a troll, thanks for clarifying that. -tom
\_ I am not a troll. I really think googhell is leem
and I haven't used googhell search for years (except
for patent search). I still use my gmail account,
but only as a throwaway email for forums signins.
I wouldn't trust googhell with my personal email.
And what the heck is up with all the cookies they
try to set. Nothing works on their sites if you
block cookies. Also extra leem. I have to use a
separate browser just to go to googhell and then
make sure to delete all the cookies after.
\_ are you 12 years old? -tom
\_ no
\_ Here's a better question. What value-added has Google brought
to the table?
\_ Groups: Clearly added value. Usenet is dead.
Blogger: Eh, probably about the same. Adds value by
integrating, single sign-on.
Picasa: See Blogger.
Mapping/Earth: Huge, huge value add.
Ad firms/search: Hard to tell, it's all proprietary on the
back end. But clearly they're doing something right.
YouTube: Haven't changed it much yet.
Apps: Have gained much more acceptance than they ever
would have as independent entities. Technology still
has a way to go.
Overall, I'd say Google has done a better than average job
of integrating acquisitions. -tom
\_ Groups - leem, use gnus if you need news
Blogger - even leemer than groups
Picasa - also leem (flickr is better if you like that
sort of thing)
Mapping/Earth - who cares? you can get directions that
are same/better from mapquest, yahoo, &c.
Ads - did I mention I HATE ADS
YouTube - Okay this is cool, but only b/c it is the
easiest way to watch Top Gear episodes. If
there were no pirated Top Gear episodes on
YouTube, it would be leem as well.
Apps - yawn, if you need word processing use word (or
if you hate M$ use Pages, if you can't use Pages
stop being a dork and get a mac)
if you hate M$ use Pages, if you don't have
Pages, stop being a dork and get a mac)
Patent Search - Reasonably k3wl but only b/c the PTO
can't get its act together and put up
a decent website. Of course, to make
this really useful they should put the
file history online and any case history
re validity/invalidity
\_ you're an idiot.
\_ You're "leem". I'm not a huge google fan either,
but at least I'll admit a few of their properties
are the best around.
\_ But most of them, like YouTube, are pretty much
the work of other companies. How did YouTube
change post-Google acquisition?
\_ Even if they do minimal integration like
accepting Google Account credentials, the net
effect is to lock people into the Google
ecosystem, if you will. They can also stick
ads on everything as usual, and there's a certain
cross-advertising synergy. Yes, that doesn't
necessarily improve the actual service, but two
obvious ways of improving Youtube are better
quality video (which requires huge storage and
bandwidth, with G presumably has), and better
searchability (which is supposedly G's forte).
I think they are working on both of these, but
I'm not really monitoring their progress. |