Code: is brevity better?
March 9, 2012
So like with all things there is a balance to be had. Doing it in the fewest lines of code is not the best way, but rather doing it in the right number of lines. Chaining is nice and convenient but you all highlighted the potential problem, what if it blows up. If you get a null pointer in the middle of a long chain of string manipulations how in the world do you debug it. For that reason alone I think it is poor form to chain a line too far. Personally I try to avoid any chain that extends over 80 chars. Of course that would be impossible in java as the namespace alone is that long let alone the 80 char method name, you would never have room for parameters. But joking aside, Damian Conway made some really interesting points about this, some that I take very seriously. Code maintainability is directly related to its comprehensibility. ...
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code
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Ripping CDs
May 10, 2011
So this is both very easy and very complicated at the same time.
It is much like scanning pictures, which as I am sure you are well aware now, is quite easy to get
resemblance of the picture into the computer, but to get great results at times takes much more effort.
That said, the difference between basic results and perfect results isn’t that noticeable by most unlike a great scan.
So lets start with the basic. There are numerous tools for doing this, you could ask 100 people in a day and probably get 100 different answers. Even windows media player will do the trick. That said most of the tools have an ulterior motive. Windows Media Player wants you to rip to WMA format, itunes wants you to use its AAC format, both are functional and can sound great, but neither are as portable as the ubiquitous mp3 file. So you probably want to...
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digital audio extraction, eac, mp3, ripping cds
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Speakers and What to buy
November 29, 2010
This is in response to a question my brother posed about a set of speakers and a reciever for an entry level home theater.
He was considerig the following:
Klipsch HD 500 Compact 5.1 Home Theater System (Set of Six, Black)
Yamaha HTR-5063BL 7.1 Channel 630 Watt AV Receiver (Each, Black)
I love Klipsch. I wanted a set for years and when I got fed up with my infinity setup, I finally got my Klipsch, and have not regretted it for one moment. Well, for a few moments I have regretted not buying the even bigger mains, but that is really not a practical thing. Now they have re-released the the RF7 as an RF7 II and if I had any justification or extra money I might consider that but, really I am completely satisfied with my RF series setup.
One thing that I have heard said and...
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home audio, home theater, recievers, speakers
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Offsite Photo Storage
April 27, 2009
While backup of your photos to an external drive is a great first start, it is not entirely good enough, it only gives you the same level of archival that you had with previous hard copies. Should your home catch fire or your hardware is in some other way destroyed or lost, you have still lost all of your precious memories in one fell swoop.
There are a few solutions to this problem that have advantages and disadvantages. The primary goal though is to have a copy of the files somewhere not at the same physical address. The ghetto solution is swapping dvds. I'll store yours if you store mine. This works as well as the frequency with which you renew your swaps. Everything after the previous swap is vulnerable to loss. Also there is the issue of potentially loosing the disk.
Another options is the use of a photo service such as costco photos. Costco will continue to store your uploaded photos as long as you continue to print periodically. The problem is that uploading is time consuming and you are at their mercy for retrieval, many services will not allow you to retrieve full resolution copies.
Online backup...
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backup, memories, online storage, photo storage, photos
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Discounted Desktops and Laptops
April 27, 2009
One of the most frequent questions I am asked is what would I recommend a person buying a computer. I consider the choice of computer to be a very personal issue with many factors that should be fine tuned to individual need and use. However, I am occasionally reminded that others attachments to their computers does not run really so deep and that they are just really overwhelmed by the vast array of options not knowing how much to spend.
So lets make it simple if you dont know how much to spend, dont spend much. Literally, under $500 for a desktop and not much more for a laptop. You will always get more power out of a desktop than an equivalently priced laptop.
The link to geeks.com is the desktop I have been buying periodically for low end needs. Basic computing tasks nothing major. It is a very reliable machine designed for business use. I usually buy it with a bit more memory. If you get a readynas or other large external storage, the internal drive should be sufficient. Otherwise I would also buy a bigger hard drive with it. Definitely the cheapest option for a decent machine, though...
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computer, deal, dell, which computer
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Family File and Photo Storage
April 27, 2009
These days it is not uncommon to have multiple computers in the home. Perhaps a laptop and a desktop and often an older desktop that the kids use. This presents some complication to managing file storage that often are not properly addressed until its too late.
When we upgraded the last computer, we perhaps just copied the necessary files to our new computer and maybe left other less important files and sometimes sensitive documents behind, knowing that we were not disposing of the old computer just yet. Often when that computer becomes the childrens computer we perhaps did not think to finish the process. If your children are anything like mine, they are amazing at insuring the infestation of a computer with virii and other malware. It is pretty pertinent that the computer be fully cleaned before passing it on.
Also as we move to digital photography we are storing more and more precious memories on our computers, and often that is the only place that they exist. As camera prices drop we are now buying our children cameras and they are taking pictures as well. Not all of them are good but some should be kept nevertheless.
At...
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children, family, nas, photos, readynas, storage
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Anti Virus software is a necessity
April 9, 2009
The Mcafee subscription service has worked well to keep my computers updated and virus free.
In a day of escalating threats this is really a must have.
Here is some competitive analysis done by a competitor.
http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/documents/vipre-enterprise-performance-metrics.pdf.
It shows McAfee as the second best in CPU usage during a scan.
This is my primary concern.
If you are memory limited McAfee may not be the best choice as it has the largest memory footprint during a scan.
It is also ranked slowest.
But memory is cheap especially for 3 year old machines, and I let my scans run automated while I am sleeping.
Ocassionally a full scan will kick off when I am using the computer I simply tell it to stop and it will restart some other time.
Virus writing and Malware is no longer a hobby employed by the bored, but now is big business.
The two main drives are identity theft and spam.
Both are massive businesses.
Recent identity theft statistics released by the FBI claims that 9.91 million Americans were identity theft victims and have experienced losses totaling $52.6 billion
1 . Many...
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antivirus, botnets, identity theft, mcafee, spam, trojans, virus
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A Great Subwoofer
November 19, 2008
I was looking at sub woofers today and realized I had not posted anything about my subwoofer. Speaker building has long been a hobby for me and so I have seldom been satisfied with off the shelf low end equipment. So often the stats are exaggerated and the performance anemic. The worst part is that the price represents the mental value the consumer places on owning that gadget more than it does the work and components that went into the construction.
Sub woofers are relatively simple speakers to build and anyone with even a little reading can build one. Porting a subwoofer requires some semi-complicated math but can be done with out too much work if desired. That said the simplest subwoofer design is a non-ported sealed box. The manufacturer of the driver will generally specify an ideal sealed box size so not much else but building the box is required. I only mention this to say that the subwoofers sold commercially do not involve very complicated engineering.
I had been looking for sometime when I came across the solution.
While the idea of building your own subwoofer may be a bit daunting, this kit really makes it quite...
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home theater, parts express, sub woofer, subwoofer
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Applaud Microsoft
November 19, 2008
I just wanted to say that I think Microsoft finally got it in the war on piracy. I recently needed to add Microsoft Office to a new computer. I was blown away to find out that they have new pricing for home computers that allows you to run it on multiple computers. $120 to run it on 3 computers from Costco.
I bought it in a heart beat and didnt think twice about finding it through other sources. Now if only I could say the same about Photoshop.
Tags:
microsoft, photoshop, piracy, pricing
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Piracy and Pricing
October 3, 2008
The thing so many neglect to take into account when trying to recoupe IP development costs is that the revenues are based on quantity*cost. With IP there is very little additional cost to each additional sale. The mistake so many are making is that they assume a limited sales base from the start. Adobe assumes that only designers want or need photoshop rather than realizing that if priced appropriately everyone who owns a digital camera would want photoshop. Instead they release mediocre products like Elements that my Mom wont even use, I know I bought a copy for her, it didnt have the flexibility she enjoyed with Photoshop.
PC Game publishers have demolished their market in the battle against piracy. Instead of listening to their demographic they took a ridiculous stand of if we cannot stop some from copying we will not sell you games. And now they have no market. If instead they made games $19.95-24.95 (9.95-14.95 for a B title), the majority would happily buy them. At that price its not worth the hastle of copying them. Sure there will still be some 12 year olds who have no allowance that will copy, but that pricing just makes...
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drm, pc games, piracy, pricing
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