It’s so kind of you to say!
Nice is a Unix program used to change the priority of processes. Mainly used in cases where you want a particular program to run at a higher priority than normal.
Renice is used to change the priority of processes already running.
Just one of those commands that you’ll probably never use.
For some it marked the death of “proper” music.
Every song you hear on the radio, in a night club, and at some concerts wouldn’t be possible without some sort of computer processing. From electronic keyboards to drum machines and to the infamous Auto-Tune, there’s a computer in there somewhere making music “better”.[1]
Music production is so reliant on computer processing that most producers wouldn’t know how to their job without a computer. There are some decent tunes that we wouldn’t have without computer processing[2], but then again there’s some dreadful tat out there that shouldn’t be ever played again.[3]
Natural or otherwise.
We communicate naturally through language. Over the course of history, languages have evolved grammatical rules, syntax, semantics and idioms.
But for every grammatical rule there’s an exception, idioms generally don’t make logical sense, the meaning of a word can change with context, metaphors can often mean the opposite of what they say – all of which makes it difficult for a computer to understand.
Computers are simple machines. Simple in the sense that they do one thing at a time and need to be told exactly what to do every time. There can’t be any ambiguity. Inside a computer ambiguity leads to errors – errors that can be fatal to the execution of a programme.
Anyone who has used speech to text software will tell you that it requires an amount of training and even then it’s far from perfect.
The day that we can issue commands verbally and expect the computer to interpret our intentions perfectly is a long way off yet.
Quite possibly the most important program to ever ship with Windows.
For as long as I can remember, Windows has shipped with a version of Klondike. Over the years, it’s been a lifesaver. When dial-up was the only method of connecting to the Internet, Klondike helped me get through all those large downloads that took forever to complete.
Before personal MP3 players became ubiquitous, Klondike was there for me while I copied my CD’s to Windows Media Player.
Once I moved over to the Mac platform, I missed Klondike. But thankfully, I was able to find a Mac clone that some generous soul had released for free.
I’ve spent hours using Klondike, and it’s saved my sanity more than once. So great is this application, that I even have a version of it for my mobile phone.
If you’re asking yourself why you’ve never heard of this application if it’s so great, chances are you have. It’s just that you know it by another name.
Solitare.
We can’t be having you understand what we do.
Jargon, the shield used to brow beat the less knowledgeable into submission. Also the sword used by the less knowledgeable to attack the experts. Love it or hate it, jargon is what makes the world go round.[1]
The field of computer science probably has more jargon per cubic foot of nerd than any other speciality. Everything has to have at least a TLA[2] or FLA.[3]
Computer jargon is used to impress the uninitiated, confuse those that are new to computers, and obfuscate the fact that at best computers are problematic and at worse, just don’t do what you think they should.[4]
The only solution is to make up your own jargon:
“Yeah, I was working on my PC last night and half of my AV outputs died. Had a look at the AV simulation adapter and found a loose dual channel trans-communication pathway. A reseating of the faulty two-pin holding plug, and I was back up and running.”
In English: “Yeah, I was working on my computer last night when the sound stopped working. I checked the sound card and found a loose cable. Plugged the cable back in, and it was working fine.”
Blatantly obvious was it not?
No, Apple have not released a PHP framework for converting PHP files to applications and there is no such thing as iPHPd.
Well, there is because I made it up – International Pull Humourless Pranks Day aka, April Fools.
At least it’s over now.
Programming for the masses, thanks to Apple.
iPHPd[1] is a programming framework from Apple that allows Mac OS users to develop programs using PHP and run them as proper applications on their Mac’s.[2]
It runs as a system service and detects, through the use of a special heading in the PHP file, when a file should be run as an application.
No more costly development cycles, you can now write professional looking programs yourself.[3]
It’s installed by default, but needs to be enabled. To help you out, I’ve written up a small, downloadable tutorial here.
Well, it used to be called HoTMaiL, now it’s Windows Live
The first of the on-line web mail sites that made spamming attractive.[1] Sign up for a free account, and send as many spam emails as you wanted to.
Now part of the “Microsoft Corporate Family” ™ ©[2] , a Hotmail address should be taken as a sure sign that the person you’re emailing is hiding something.
If you see a company advertising using a Hotmail address, then run a mile.
Handy though for pranking your friends.
Thanks for reading another instalment of “Letter of the Day”,
i-am-the-real-barack-obama-promise@hotmail.com
Not to be confused with Google.
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
That’s a googol. In comparison, this is how many atoms[1] are in the entire Universe:
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Or course, atoms are small so, I started counting something bigger, like stars, and got:
70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000[2]
Then there’s the population of earth: 6,769,344,219
Population of Ireland: 4,156,119
Limerick: 90778
So next time you feel all alone face facts. You are.[3]
What would the Internet be without Flamers?
Everyone has a subject that they feel passionate about, a subject that they’ve put in so much time and effort and they consider themselves experts in the field.[1]
Discussing topics of interest in the real world very rarely get out of hand,[2] but in an on-line setting, there’s no physical barrier to saying what you want.
Flame wars can erupt over the silliest of topics. Just Google “Pirates vs Ninjas” and witness at first hand the hatred both sides hold for each other. And who can forget that continuously simmering battle of Vi vs Emacs?
In the long run, flame wars benefit neither side, but they are fun to watch,[3] as each side becomes more entrenched and the insults become more personal until eventually the entire reason for the war is forgotten. Which is pretty much the same as war in the real world.
An EEPROM by any other name would still be as non-volatile…
Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory is a bit of a mouthful, (not that EEPROM is much better), but mouthful or not, I wouldn’t be typing this without the humble EEPROM.
You may recognise it better as a BIOS chip or through it’s descendent, the Flash Memory Drive. The EEPROM allows us to keep data in memory after power has been removed.[1]
Without EEPROM’s we wouldn’t be able to save music to our iPods, take pictures on our digital camera’s, backup data to thumb drives, and so son. The list is endless. Anywhere you find a BIOS chip or flash memory, you’ll find an EEPROM.