You are looking at posts that were written in the month of September in the year 2005.
Posted on September 24th, 2005 by Tim.
Categories: General/Misc..
A super mario world editor… how cool is that.
Posted on September 23rd, 2005 by Chris.
Categories: Chris, General/Misc., Quotes.
After hearing about Dvorak, I decided to go to his blog and he actually linked to something worth reading.
A: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/09/14_key.shtml
A: hypothetically, i could have a wireless keyboard
A: and still use the same keyboard
While we’re on the subject, this is highly amusing and I should’ve linked to it earlier.
-Chris
Posted on September 23rd, 2005 by Tim.
Categories: General/Misc..
The new theme is nice. If you didnt read articles until after it was changed, however, I’ll seem crazy. I am crazy.
On to happier topics. John C. Dvorak is an Idiot. And not because his name coincides with the unrelated keyboard layout that no one cares about. He sucks because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and yet no one seems to notice. Part of the problem is that slashdot is in love with Dvorak the microsoft basher. These days, bashing Microsoft makes you popular. Does anyone really read his articles? Apparently not, because it would quickly be apparent that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Let’s look at a few articles he’s written.
MarketWatch: Sick of Google: 8/18/2004
Fact is, the company should have promoted fair pricing. Let Mr. Everyman buy some stock and make a little money on a reasonable run-up. Instead Google promotes $135 a share and an unsustainable $35 billion market cap.
Right JD, unsustainable. Last I checked, Google was at 315 with a market cap of around $94 bil. No further comment.
MarketWatch: The unexpected effects of Apple’s Intel move: 6/7/2005
I almost thought he understood what he was talking about in this article when JD starts with this:
The Linux world suffers from a lack of modern intuitive menus and commands. Anyone who has played with the Open Office Programs such as the Powerpoint clone called “Impress” soon finds themselves lost in a jungle of menu structures and naming conventions. These stem from old Unix roots and none of the Unix-trained Linux users find it peculiar or difficult. In fact, they cannot even recognize these problems. Part of the reason that Linux has not broken onto the desktop is because of these old Unix roots
Then he gives us this load of BS:
Linux has other problems too. It’s likely that developer interest will wane when Apple is fully engaged on the X86 platform. While Apple ran on the PowerPC chip the amount of developer effort in the Open Source camps was nil. But now that Apple is using the same processor as everyone else, targeting the Macs will now be an easy decision to make. This will be at the expense of Linux.
There are so many things wrong with this paragraph, it’s hard to know where to start. I guess I’ll start with his basic lack of understand of computer architecture. “Now that Apple is using the same processor as everyone else, targeting the Macs will now be an easy decision to make.” As a developer, the switch to a different CPU should be nearly transparent. The APIs aren’t changing. The compiler still takes standard C++ code. The only thing that has changed is that I give a different set of flags to GCC. No one is going to switch to OSX just because it’s a different CPU. That’s utter garbage.
And then there’s his basic misunderstand of why people like Linux. Who likes linux? Programmers like linux. Programmers and nerds who wannabe programmers. They like Linux because it’s open, free, and isn’t Windows. They don’t like it because it runs on x86. OSX on x86 isn’t going to get any of them to switch. That’s also utter garbage.
MarketWatch: Attacking violent video games: 5/25/2005
Maybe this one isn’t completely his fault:
I once interviewed Al Unser, Jr. about the use of race car video games and their usefulness as simulators for professional drivers and he told me that when he was a kid he’d sneak out of school to “drive” race cars at the video arcade. He not only thought they were useful training tools, but the newer improved games are helping the up-and-coming drivers even more.
Al Unser, Jr. was born April 19th, 1962. Even if he was talking about sneaking out of school when he was 18, that still only brings us up to 1980. For reference, Pole Position was released in the arcade in 1982. Really Al, you learned to race by playing Pole position? Who’s more of a moron, Al for claiming he learned to race from Pole Position, or JD for believing him?
And now Mr. Dvorak is claiming that Microsoft will be splitting up into three companies, within the next 3 years. Perhaps if he had more credibility, I might have a reason to believe him. Unfortunately, every time I read an article he writes, I lose even more respect for him.
Yes, Mr. Dvorak is an Idiot. Yes, Slashdot keeps quoting him.
I’ll close with a quote of my own:
[22:37] Tim: i’m writing about why John Dvorak is an idiot
[22:37] Chris: you don’t need to write that article
[22:37] Chris: John Dvorak publishes it every week
Posted on September 23rd, 2005 by Chris.
Categories: Chris, General/Misc., Philosophy, Programming.
If you find blogs about programming too intellectually stimulating, you’re welcome to check out my random links:
http://www.side-quest.com/tlabs/comic.php
Which is perhaps as freakishly weird as you’re gonna get in a link. This is more normal, it has to do with language and which words we used the most often:
It’s worth considering, while we’re on the subject of word reuse and misuse, that there is a little known law called Zipf’s Law. Our CS professor uses it to explain the brevity and incomprehensibility of commonly used idioms in programming:
string response = ("0123456789".indexOf(g) >= 0 ? "number" : "letter");
(Though usually you’re not likely to use more than one of them at once.)
The more a word is used, the more meanings it has, and the shorter it gets.
Finally, here’s a link to NP4:
NP4
And yes, I did change the template.
-Chris