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Topics - app103 [ switch to compact view ]

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376
Developer's Corner / Good Agile, Bad Agile, and What It's Like to Work for Google
« on: September 28, 2006, 09:09 PM »
From a high level, Google's process probably does look like chaos to someone from a more traditional software development company. As a newcomer, some of the things that leap out at you include:

- there are managers, sort of, but most of them code at least half-time, making them more like tech leads.

- developers can switch teams and/or projects any time they want, no questions asked; just say the word and the movers will show up the next day to put you in your new office with your new team.

- Google has a philosophy of not ever telling developers what to work on, and they take it pretty seriously.

- developers are strongly encouraged to spend 20% of their time (and I mean their M-F, 8-5 time, not weekends or personal time) working on whatever they want, as long as it's not their main project.

- there aren't very many meetings. I'd say an average developer attends perhaps 3 meetings a week, including their 1:1 with their lead.

- it's quiet. Engineers are quietly focused on their work, as individuals or sometimes in little groups or 2 to 5.

- there aren't Gantt charts or date-task-owner spreadsheets or any other visible project-management artifacts in evidence, not that I've ever seen.

- even during the relatively rare crunch periods, people still go get lunch and dinner, which are (famously) always free and tasty, and they don't work insane hours unless they want to.

These are generalizations, sure. Old-timers will no doubt have a slightly different view, just as my view of Amazon is slightly biased by having been there in 1998 when it was a pretty crazy place. But I think most Googlers would agree that my generalizations here are pretty accurate.

How could this ever work?
-http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/09/good-agile-bad-agile_27.html


377
Living Room / The Last Smiley: Shockwave 3D game
« on: September 28, 2006, 01:07 AM »
OMGHI2U!!! lol ^_^... did u see wut he posted??? :)
ummm neo is broke, smileys arent working :[ :[

Yes, on that fateful day the smileys were indeed not working. They had been stolen and whisked away to a place far, far away where they would have all the colour removed from them and would become plain, boring text. The players of Neopets would no longer laugh out loud, there would be no more rolling on the floor, and they could try as hard as they liked but their ... ummm .... arms would never come off.

In this game you play The Last Smiley. You must find, and liberate the other smileys and make your way through the world of Neopia back to the NeoBoards where you belong.



You do not need an account to play. You only need one to register your score.

This one makes my heart jump when I fall off the platform.

378
Living Room / Game: Funny Farm
« on: September 24, 2006, 02:19 AM »
It seems easy but it's not...

Type in things you would find on a farm.

All things are related to other things in some way.

One thing leads to another.

Click yellow blocks on the minimap to reveal different areas of the puzzle.

It will be quite an accomplishment if you can solve this puzzle...and an even bigger accomplishment if you can solve it alone.


379
The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / PhinisheD
« on: September 23, 2006, 01:09 PM »
How is your dissertation (or thesis) coming?

Is it finished yet?

This site is the discussion and support group for people that just can't seem to get it finished.


Thanks for the tip, Tracy!   :Thmbsup:


380
Living Room / Ben Franklin's Lightning Experiments Digitized
« on: September 17, 2006, 11:59 AM »
Benjamin Franklin's 1752 paper, describing his lightning experiments with a kite, is now online (in .pdf format) for a limited time.

Included in this document is Ben Franklin's recipe for cooking a tender turkey.  :D




Note: When reading this document it will be necessary to replace many f-like characters, in your mind, with 's'. (I am sure glad we don't spell like that any more)

381
Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Stand alone bookmarks toolbar
« on: September 16, 2006, 09:07 AM »
How come most browsers do not allow you to have multiple bookmarks toolbars?

I would love to have a stand alone application that could allow me to point it at a folder of bookmarks and it would add the contents to a toolbar.

Some features it has to have:

  • must be able to set folders on the toolbar, that when clicked will access a menu containing the links and subfolders of that folder. (not just links on the toolbar)

  • must display the icon associated with those bookmarks, and/or allow you to set an icon for each item. If there is no icon available or selected, show the default folder icon or icon for default browser.

  • allow the addition of multiple rows with more folders.

  • links must open in default browser. (command line parameter to set a browser path other than default would be nice too, but not necessary)

  • must be able to display new additions of both folders & bookmarks automatically if the contents should change while the program is running.

  • must support drag & drop of items & folders for reorganizing, allow adding, editing, and deleting of items/folders

  • must stay always on top

  • must be resizable

  • rows must be slim in size like in this image so it won't take up much screen space:

bookmarks-toolbar.png


Basically what I am looking for is more bookmark toolbar rows compatible with existing folders of IE bookmarks. If it can handle the bookmark files of Firefox, Opera, and a few others too, that would be a nice bonus.

382
Living Room / CreatingMinds
« on: September 14, 2006, 07:20 AM »
CreatingMinds.org seems to be mainly targeted at artists and writers, but I don't see why the principles, techniques, and methods couldn't be applied to other things like software development...or even business.

There is a lot of good articles & tools on this site for unleashing your creative side...get you really thinking in new directions....both as an individual...or as a group.

If you are participating in the GTD experiment here at the site, after you get the clutter out of your mind by writing it all down, you might want to use some of that free mental space to do some really creative stuff.

You never know...you might come up with the next brilliant million dollar idea.  :)


383
Living Room / Top 100 PC Games of the 21st Century (so far)
« on: September 10, 2006, 03:31 AM »
Next-Gen has ranked the top 100 PC games released since January 2000, based wholly on unit sales. Revenues, aggregate review scores, commentary, franchise information and more are included.


384
Living Room / 50th Anniversary of the Hard Drive
« on: September 10, 2006, 03:21 AM »
September 2006 marks the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the world's first commercial hard drive - the 305 RAMAC Computer, with its 350 Disk Storage Unit - that was designed and built right here in what would eventually become Silicon Valley. The Disk Storage Unit was introduced on Sept. 4, 1956, and the 305 RAMAC Computer was introduced on Sept. 13, 1956.

http://www.physorg.com/news77026229.html

385
Living Room / Japanese Wheelchair
« on: September 10, 2006, 03:19 AM »
Japanese wheelchair comes with built-in toilet capable of cleaning, drying and deodorizing user's butt.
Secondary market among DonationCoder members anticipated by maker.

http://www.upi.com/N...0060909-014050-3550r

386
Living Room / Flash Game: Plastic Balls
« on: September 10, 2006, 03:06 AM »
Use your left & right arrow keys to control the paddle and keep the ball from going down the drain.


387
Living Room / Best Portable Computer Ever
« on: September 10, 2006, 02:11 AM »
Hilarious video clip...Even comes with a blow up secretary!


388
Developer's Corner / Freebie: DevForce Express
« on: September 10, 2006, 01:49 AM »
from MSDN Flash newsletter:

IdeaBlade has a new suite of tools that also promises to accelerate application development. DevForce Express 3.2 can now be downloaded for free. Advanced features in this release include support for in-memory checkpointing, paging, and asynchronous queries. While you are on their site, be sure to subscribe to their "Tech Tips" weekly newsletter; an invaluable resource for the latest DevForce Express and .NET 2.0 Framework technical insights and code samples from the IdeaBlade development team.


389
Living Room / The Prettiest Spam You Have Ever Seen
« on: September 03, 2006, 12:48 PM »
The ASCII values found in the text of spam messages determine the attributes and qualities of the Spam Plants




The images from the Spam Architecture series are generated by a computer program that accepts as input, junk email. Various patterns, keywords and rhythms found in the text are translated into three-dimensional modeling gestures.


gmailspam.jpgNow why can't it look this darn good in my inbox? If it did I'd print it out and hang it on my wall instead of deleting it.

390
Living Room / Dangerous Ideas
« on: September 03, 2006, 12:13 PM »
The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?

What you will find emerging out of the 119 original essays in the 75,000 word document written in response to the 2006 Edge Question — "What is your dangerous idea?" — are indications of a new natural philosophy, founded on the realization of the import of complexity, of evolution. Very complex systems — whether organisms, brains, the biosphere, or the universe itself — were not constructed by design; all have evolved. There is a new set of metaphors to describe ourselves, our minds, the universe, and all of the things we know in it.


http://www.edge.org/q2006/q06_index.html

391
Living Room / Science's 10 Most Beautiful Physics Experiments
« on: September 03, 2006, 11:58 AM »
Robert P. Crease, a member of the philosophy department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the historian at Brookhaven National Laboratory, recently asked physicists to nominate the most beautiful experiment of all time. Based on the paper of George Johnson in The New York Times we list below 10 winners of this polling and accompany the short explanations of the physical experiments with computer animations.


392
Living Room / The Mystery of Science
« on: September 03, 2006, 11:52 AM »
A surprising argument has been made that if the discovery of science had not happened in Greece, it would not have happened at all, that scientific thinking is not essential for human culture, and that most cultures did not have it.

http://www.hyperhist...2/science_essay.html

393
Living Room / Planet Perplex: Art for the mind
« on: September 03, 2006, 11:24 AM »
Planet Perplex is a comprehensive collection of optical illusions, impossible objects, hidden images, puzzles and related images.


394
Living Room / Augmented Fish Reality
« on: September 03, 2006, 11:10 AM »
Augmented Fish Reality is an interactive installation of 5 rolling robotic fish-bowl sculptures designed to explore interspecies and transpecies communication. These sculptures allow Siamese Fighting fish to use intelligent hardware and software to move their robotic bowls - under their control.


395
Living Room / Is 'No' a complete sentence?
« on: September 03, 2006, 11:04 AM »
no.png

Interesting discussion on whether or not 'No' is a complete sentence.

http://www.everythin...ex.pl?node_id=588312

396
Living Room / What is a genius?
« on: September 03, 2006, 10:42 AM »
If beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder, then genius resides in the deepest recesses of the mind. What is genius, who is a genius, what is the role and responsibility of a genius? No two people will answer in quite the same way. Seeking to shed some light on these and other questions, DigitAll queried five varied thinkers. The results? Genius.

http://samsung.com/F..._winter/feat_03a.htm

397
Living Room / Testosterone Apocalypse
« on: September 03, 2006, 10:36 AM »
The world could be headed toward a testosterone fueled apocalypse triggered by lop-sided sex ratios, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers, from China and the UK, say that cultures like China and India that favor male babies have bred an enormous surplus of men who will struggle to find sexual partners and will likely find themselves marginalized in society.


398
Living Room / Custom Messages from Einstein
« on: September 03, 2006, 09:58 AM »
You can make Einstein write whatever you want.


399
Living Room / Hacking the Nervous System
« on: September 03, 2006, 09:46 AM »
The brain has always been a battlefield. New weapons might be able to hack directly into your nervous system.


The skin is the easiest target for such stimulation. But, in principle, any sensory nerves could be triggered. The Controlled Effects document suggests “it may be possible to create synthetic images…to confuse an individual' s visual sense or, in a similar manner, confuse his senses of sound, taste, touch, or smell.”

http://www.defensete...archives/002152.html

400
Living Room / Is our universe about to be mangled?
« on: September 03, 2006, 09:39 AM »
Our universe may one day be obliterated or assimilated by a larger universe, according to a controversial new analysis. The work suggests the parallel universes proposed by some quantum theorists may not actually be parallel but could interact – and with disastrous consequences.


http://www.newscient...t-to-be-mangled.html

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