Posts by samaru

Carl Sagan was definitely a great one. I watched most of his documentaries. "Billions and Billions" was a real treat.

On the subject of quotes... I'd like to share some of my favorites. I used to have these on my diary a while back.

Educational/Inspirational:

You tell me, and I'll forget. You show me, and I'll remember. You involve me, and I'll learn.

Great things are not done by impulse, but a series of small things brought together. - Vincent Von Gogh

Life is a hard teacher. First it gives you the test, then it gives you the lesson.

He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes. He who doesn't is a fool forever.

If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants. - Isaac Newton

Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly. - Robert F. Kennedy

Romantic Quotes (Yeah, even I have a weak spot. ;))

Love is like playing the piano. First you must learn to play by the rules, then you must forget the rules and play from your heart.

I love you not for what you are but for what I am when I'm with you."

Things do not change, we change.

I have some funny ones, but they would spoil the mood after reading the above. :)

I wonder when we'll come across extraterrestrial intelligence. There's very little intelligence on this planet so we're in desperate need of all that we can get. ;)

I agree with Bob. Show that you've tried to do the problem. List some code if you have tried it or pseudocode. If you can't come up with even pseudocode, you'll make us wonder why you're attempting to program anything in the first place. You don't even list a possible solution or any sort of algorithm to solve it. I guess that shows what kind of person you are.

We are very happy to help anyone, at least I am. But helping someone takes time. Show us some consideration by at least making an attempt.

I guess I disagree. I think a good author can make a good book no matter what. I know what you mean by the publisher and staff. They might restrict the author in some ways, and probably even "break" the book, like you stated.

I think though, if the author is good, he can work around that. Overall, to me, if the author can explain the material well, I'm satisfied. Even if it has mistakes, I'll excuse that if he has a web site for errata, for which most do. Let me give you an example. I despise the O'Reilly format. When I open up one of the books, the layout reminds me of man pages (linux documentation). It just gives a very dry appearance. This is not the author's fault, it's the standard layout all O'Reilly authors have to follow. But then when I read "Programming ColdFusion," by Rob Brooks-Bilson, I forgot about the way it was layed out by O'Reilly because the author was good enough to explain the material in a way that kept me interested.

I'm speaking from experience by the way. I buy an average of two books a week and own several online books from Sams, QUE, Wrox, O'Reilly, New Riders, McGraw Hill, Osborne, and Coriolis, and Friends of Ed. I already know the layout of each publisher. I'm not going to tell you which one is the best because again, in my opinion, it all depends on the author. You can …

QVS? Did you mean VQS (Visual Quick Start)? Their format is ok if you're in a hurry to learn the material. It's also cheap. But because its aim is to get you up to speed fast, it misses in depth issues.

Just remember that the overall quality always depends on the author, not the publishers.

I'm inscissor, you're einstein... einstein. Ok ok, yours has an "a," big whoop. ;)

I wasn't sure if you remembered or asked for the sake or asking again, or what. I just answered. I wasn't trying to be a smart alec. But hey, sometimes we do things twice... like how many times have you looked at your watch for the time, then a second later, looked at it again?

Director uses Lingo. :) Remember how I compared it to Logo? ;) [thread]113[/thread]

It's been more than a year since Macromedia has initiated a campaign to move Flash usage from movies (skip intros) to GUIs for web applications. It was funny seeing Kevin Lynch's (CEO of Macromedia) reaction when he asked how many people use it for GUIs. Not that many. Mostly prefer to use traditional HTML/CSS/JavaScript. Too encourage that, Flash MX now comes with premade components (drop down boxes, textboxes, buttons, and other cool stuff), which is kind of cool. If you want to see some cool components, check out:

http://www.flashcomponents.net/

What is your overall goal with Flash? Even if you get a book on application development with Flash, they tend to cover the basics of Flash. Also it's less boring. Some Flash books are just too basic (you spend drawing circles and squares for the first five chapters). If you already have some background in a graphics program, even an authoring program like Dreamweaver, it will seam somewhat redundant. I think you'd rather learn the basics while learning something else, like XML, which Flash MX does a better job with.

Like Bob, I think ActionScript, the Definitive Guide O'Reilly is a good book. I have it (for version 5) and make good use of it. I've never been too fond of O'Reilly books, except their references.

In my experience, the Friends of Ed books are ok. I have three of their books (ActionScript, ActionScript Studio, and ColdFusion for Flash) which are ok, but the pace might seem a bit slow, for these books anyways... just my 2 cents.

If you want to develop Flash games, these two books rule:

Macromedia Flash MX Game Design Demystified (ISBN: 0201770210)
Flash Games Studio (ISBN: 1903450675)

if I'm gonna be learning this stuff then I should be able to understand it right?

Well, how else are you suppose to learn if you can't understand. If you don't understand, you don't call it learning. You might be able to memorize concepts, but that's it. Memorizing is pretty much useless because you can always look stuff up.

Now, were you being sarcastic? Meaning that you couldn't understand the tutorials because the way they were written? It might not suit you, although I have shown it to other people and they told me they were written well (I can't be the judge of that because I already know how to program). If you have a hard time grasping concepts, why not ask questions? I'm sure the authors would be glad to help you. If you want me to recommend you a book I'll be glad to. Let me know.

Honestly, if you're only going to be taking one class, in this case programming, then you're better off with a good book. It's hard finding a good programming teacher (from my experience anyways, and I've taken many). If it was my choice, I'd pickup a good book. I'd learn at my own pace, I would structure my own course my way (actually make it fun and interesting), and would NOT be pressured with exams and homework assignments. Also, a lot cheaper too.

If you ARE considering majoring in a field, and want to do something with web development, I don't recommend computer science. Even though computer science has programming, programming is just one a part of it. (Sometimes I think it's a small part of it.) You'll spent most of the time doing calculus problems and coming up with algorithms. A lot of abstract and theory. If you want to learn hands on stuff like databases, multimedia, networks, and web development/designing (photoshop/dreamweaver/etc), you can forget it. You can either go to an IT school for that or major in information systems (BCIS/CIS). This field has programming, but it's more enclined towards the business world. BCIS also has classes in multimedia, business (marketing, finance, e-commerce), networks (hands on); all the interesting stuff.

I am a major in computer science and a minor in BCIS. Just thought I'd mention it to show some credibility.

Who told you C was boring? You should go to Slashdot and post that. Just wondering how fast you'd get flamed or hacked. :) Like I said before, all languages are boring, it's what you do with it that makes it interesting. A lot of 3D engines were made in C (some I believe are still being made in C). Unix/Linux still uses C. Many toolkits still use C heavily, even over C++. There's still many people out there that prefer it over C++. Like I said, do a post on Slashdot to find out. ;)

If you want to become a programmer in web development, I suggest you take up C++ first. Do you remember any programming at all? C++, in my opinion, is the best language to start in. Not as easy as QBASIC, but it definitely has great benefits. One of them is the OOP approach. You could take up Java instead of C++, but you'd have to pick up OOP sooner than C++ because Java forces you to use an OOP mentality. Also, C++ has been around much longer and has a solid foundation. Now, this just covers programming.

If you want to get into web development, after you know the basics of programming, going into another language is a snap. It's just a matter of syntax. Sure the form of thinking might change slightly, but algorithms will pretty much be implemented the same way. You have your choice => ASP/ASP.NET, PHP, ColdFusion, JSP, Perl. Those five are the most popular to date. Again, this is just programming.

Next, comes databases. A web application is nothing if it doesn't handle data in some way or another. You have a few options here: Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Sybase, DB2. Also you'd have to learn SQL (the language) so you can query the databases.

After that, comes technology you use on the front end (on the web page that you see). This includes HTML, JavaScript, CSS.

XML. This is a technology that's become more useful by the minute. With …

That's a heavy question. Are you interested in web applications? Desktop applications? Network? What is your operating system of choice? Are you looking for an environment where you will have the most fun programming or just there to make money?

That's a tough question to answer. If I do give you an answer, then it would probably be biased from my experience. Care to expand on your question? I take it you want to get more into web development than anything else because you mentioned FrontPage and HTML. But remember that FrontPage and HTML are just tools used mostly for web design, and web design is NOT web development.

Yeah, I didn't actually mean that when I said "fast women." Yeah, you're right, they do suck (no pun intended). I like to have relationships rather than one night stands. Just me I guess.

Cars, computers, music, and females. THAT IS ABOUT IT

Yeah... fast cars, fast computers, fast music, and fast women. ;)

LOL! Yeah, I used to do the same thing. As long as you put a nice wallpaper on the desktop, some neat sounds, and mention that the computer will now run faster, they'll be happy.

I only really did this if they gave me a system recovery CD. I remember one time I did it, and I didn't have the CD... man... trying to find the drivers was a pain in the neck.

I wish I could say the same thing. Seriously, there should be a button on my keyboard that unformats and restores my computer the way it was. I wish... it'd be cool if it did it as fast as I can undo something in word by hitting CTRL+Z.

But then it would suck if I hit it accidently. ;)

Like a cscgal said, set up a cookie. I'm assuming that you don't have an application server, just a regular web server like Apache. You can make a cookie in JavaScript then read it and set up whichever style they choose.

Yeah, I guess it does look a little bit like it, but a lot of editors have the same look. I really like it because it's fast. JBuilder is just so slow in my opinion. I don't think Java does a good job in the field of GUIs... except for the philosophy of "program once, run almost anywhere"

Do you have any other programming experience? I might be able to make a better recommendation if you tell me how much experience you have. Also, if you are starting out with Java, I recommend you not using something like JBuilder. I think it's too bulky, slow, and all the other features might seem overwhelming, and you won't even use them while you're starting off. I recommend you using JCreator. It's a fast IDE for Java written in C++ and not Java, which means it'll run a lot faster. The URL is: http://www.jcreator.com/

Let me know if you have some experience with programming.

I think you'd have a better chance of knowing (or finding out) what's on the AP exam than I would, since you're still in High School I take it. You can ask one of your teachers. I took the AP exam in HS and it was in Pascal. There was no sort of graphics programming. Everything was basics. I guess you can consider it "console programming." I believe C++ was the same way.

However, the Java Certification exam from Sun does cover the AWT. You have to know the basics of it, and that means how to initiate windows, colors, etc. (stuff you'd do for applets). I'm not sure if the AP would be the same way, but I figure I'd tell you.

If you want an online tutorial just do a search for "Java tutorial." (Duh ;)) The best book that I've come across with has been Beginning Java 2 SDK 1.4 Edition by Ivor Horton.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1861005695/qid=1047256063/sr=1-14/ref=sr_1_14/103-7217742-2215002?v=glance&s=books

If you're going to buy a book, which I recommend, always look at reviews first before you buy. If you can't grasp concepts from a book, usually, it's not you. It's the author that can't explain.

...also, a guy can put together his dream computer: fast, efficient, and one that doesn't complain and talk back.

Ok I'm having WAY too much fun with this post... ;)

Hey, at least men have a chance at understanding computers and they've only been around for about 60 years... women on the other hand.... ;)

I still see no reason why companies should be rushing towards it. I understand when it would be useful, but I don't think there's a huge benefit for it, yet. What you're saying has been traditionally done with a backend language and has been faster and easier to implement. Trying to parse through fields using DOM/SAX could be time consuming. But then again the benefits of controlling the data in a structured way and presenting it (using CSS or XSL stylesheets) does seem very appealing.

Now don't get the impression that I'm against XML. This post is in regards to XHTML (referring to the presentation layer). I just think that there's no need to rush towards it yet, but I guess it wouldn't hurt.

Using XHTML can be tricky when implementing a CMS. Some CMSs (like Spectra) can have a free form container where the user can take clump of HTML and make an object out of it to put on a page. Now, one of the reasons CMSs exists is so users don't have to worry about technicalities, just about their content. So if they DO create an object where they just paste HTML, most likely (if they're not a techie) it will not be XHTML compatible.

There are a few converters out there (HTML-->XHTML) but none of them are 100% accurate. You know you always get the one exception where a user puts crazy HTML and then it breaks the parser (or get unwanted results). …

Just wondering if you guys think there's a future for XHTML. If you don't know what XHTML is, it's just HTML ala XML. It's HTML with the structure and benefits of XML. The only reason I bring up this question is, if in fact XHTML replaces HTML, think of how many pages on the WWW have to be updated (if browsers no longer accept HTML, only XHTML). Also, because it's not as forgiving as HTML, it well make it a bit harder for beginners to design web pages. It's not just up to the W3C to set the standard, but also browsers and companies to accept it.

Currently for me, XHTML is not on my agenda. I think eventually we will move to XHTML but the transition will take time. Of course, there's no harm for me coding in XHTML rather than HTML, (browsers will still interpret it) but it will take the industry time to accept it. Just my two cents.

Secret of Mana was probably my favorite game of all time for the SNES. It was one of the games that I played A LOT. And I do mean A LOT. Other games that I played a lot were Street Fighter II, Super Mario Kart, Legend of Zelda, and Starfox. I played these games as much as I use my computer now. I had strategies (books + magazines) for all these games as well as weekly tournaments with friends (for Mario Kart and Street Fighter II).

The best was when my friend brought SNES to school and we had a class tournament. Doesn't get much better than that.

If anyone is good at Super Mario Kart or Street Fighter (SNES or PS1), I'd like to play against you. Dani is the only person I know that can really play Mario Kart. I give her extra points for being a girl. ;)

Yeah I meant Role Playing Game. Check out the link:

http://mmxz.zophar.net/rpg/mana/som.html

I was playing Secret of Mana with other people. One of my favorite games for the SNES. We started from scratch and got up to the final boss. That's accomplishing a lot for an RPG.

Nice. Here are some other records from me:

Longest Time Spent Drawing at the Desk: 9.5 Hours
Longest Time Talking to Someone on the Telephone: 7 Hours
Longest Time Spent Playing Video Games at a Sitin: 26 Hours

For some reason, time just flies when I'm at the computer. Every minute a perceive is in reality about 5 hours. Weird. =P

How long do you use your computer each day?

Definitely a good purchase. One of the best books out there. Yeah, hope my review was helpful. ;) One of the reasons why I like it is because of the tone it uses. Very friendly.

I am also glad you like the site. If you need any help with PHP/MySQL or just programming and databases in general, let me know. I'm always glad to help.

Another reason why waybackmachine is so useful. Though I don't see a page that dates back as far as you say. I found out about them in 1998 I think. I think I did my first web page in 1998, or 1997... what a thrill. I wish I still had it... ;)

I definitely agree with you. I like their stat tools. I also don't mind too much the periodic e-mails I get from them regarding web site tricks.

I hear you. I also use a counter from Bravenet.

I didn't have to delete the cookies.

Argh, yeah it's very annoying. It used to happen to me (on Windows 2000) all the time. I solved it by deleting all my temporary internet files. Try it out. Hope it works.

Here's more info:

http://www.mredkj.com/tutorials/tips_ie.html

US vs Iraq --> Bush vs Hussein

MEEEEE!! --> Love you long time

ashtray --> something I made in elementary school

sucks -> Person who flicks his cigarette out his car window

(ooh, this really annoys me)

paper dolls --> something I did NOT make in elementary school

school --> Gets in the way of learning stuff that really matters

moon - moonlighting

(Moonlighting was an awesome 80's show with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd.)

Hey, no fair. You went twice in a row. 8)

parasol -> For Sun

("Para" in Spanish means "for" and "sol" means sun.)

Mobil --> T-Mobile

(Catherine Zeta-Jones is hot)

bird --> Toucan Sam

Dove --> White

facewash --> what I do in the morning