Survey posted 2003-05-16 22:35 by Henrik.

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Does VHDL (Hardware Description Language) count. I'll assume it does. For my digital Design Class We divided into groups and implimented simple processors on FPGAs.

I don't really have an active project going right now. If I did then I could easily spend an hour a day. *Sigh* all my babies are grown up.


-The Crusader Against the Consuption of "High Fructuse" Corn Syrup: Samuel S

Cause and effect.
Programming in C / basic et al creates a system that will do as it is told.
Using VHDL creates a system that does as it has been told.

Same effect. So who gives a brass monkey about the cause.

So - that's a yes then.

I program about 3 hours per week, which consists of the time I'm not paying attention in English or Science.

If you program that much, either you write inefficent code, have too many projects, or have too much free time.

I only program a lot when I don't have anything to do, and have a major project update to do. Something like rewriting QuadForm Math OS 3 to QuadForm Math OS 4. That was the project from hell, I almost had to rewrite all the code, because the earlier code was inconsistant and inefficent. Well, I still came out with innefficent and inconsistant code, but there was a lot less. And the interface is more developed and consistant.

I spend all of my time programming. All my friends hate it though. But recently i had to send my 83 + in for a replacement. It just stopped working. I emailed them and they said to send it in.
I cant wait untill I get my Voyage 200. I wont stop programming

hm, my friends hated it too. then i ditched the calc for once, and they liked me!

No way, I'd ditch my friends, not the calc!

I'm currently breaking 10 hours but that will decline when I move.

I prefer six hours a week; one hour each day to just sit back and enjoy some programming, and the rest of the time to just live your life.

Er: 1 hour x 7 days in a week = 7 hours/week, not 6.
Or do you 'rest on the seventh day'?

and then he says it is good.

Yes, Darth Mathias rests on the seventh day, and it is good

i spend about 5 hours of time programming on my ti-89. lately though it's gone up to about 11 because of a project that i've been working on (by the way it's an RPG about my school that makes a mockery of everything)

similar to chickendude's School for the 83+?

Yay! :)

Sorry, do you mean the game makes a mockery of the school.
Or does the school make a mockery of everything.

I don't program hardly anymore at all. It's just bass is more fun, and girls think more of it too than tuning them out on a calculator.

Too bad girls aren't turned on by calculator skills :(

Ya, it is WAY too bad that girls aren't turned on by calculator skills, because then I might be a chick magnet!

Then all the jocks would try to convert to nerds... haha

*scary music and evil laugh*

And then we'll all say "No, I dun think so s0xx0rs!!!" and then we'll push them all of a cliff. Now THAT's hilarious!!! Then we nerds will take over the world and make everyone learn C++!!!!!

But the f00ls who control AP Comp. Sci will change it to Java!

Why not just learn C. Then you can learn C++.
If everyone learnt C they could help with the WINE project.

What's WINE?

Wine Is Not an Emulator. It's a drink that if you drink enough of it, you get this great feeling.

It allows certain windows programs to run under Linux.

Wine is a windows compatability layer for linux. It tries to implement the windows API under linux to kind programs to believe that they are running under windows. It is a bit like a windows emulator but its entirely writen from 'guess' work as using M$ code is illegal.

And don't forget that the Windows API both changes frequently (including little changes that break existing programs) and is very secret (a lot of it, at least).

Tell me about it.
Have just given Win98 a 2GB partition so I can play games. It took two attempts to install it. - the lowest yet. And the drivers still don't work properly.
7 reboots. WTF

Linux needs 1 reboot and then one more for when you install your new kernel, which is an option you don't have with M$. And linux is stable M$ is NOT. I don't care what people say about, it doesn't crash for me this and it doesn't crash for me that.
You run Linux - and don't touch M$ for a year, and then you try and set up a M$ machine you will see what I mean.

Sorry I get emotional on this one.

Are you using the old Win98 or 98SE? 98SE is much more stable. I can't remember the last time it crashed.

We have Second Edition, and it crashes all the time. If it manages to stay up for several hours (if no one is using it), it gets REALLY slow and grinds to a halt. I consider that a crash. Well, the mouse pointer still works, but nothing else does.

I'm trying to find out why this happens (which is very difficult to do with a closed operating system like Windows but easier under Unix), but all I've learned (from sysmon) is that the processor usage increases proportionally with the uptime, with the usage approaching 100% after several hours. It might be a virus, in which case the problem is still with Windows, since it is not very secure at all; securing Windows is like bailing out a boat with a sieve.

Anyway, I can bail out ;) of Windows when it crashes by going into my installation of Slackware GNU/Linux. It's very stable and doesn't have nearly any of the problems associated with Windows.

Yay! Parade for Linux! Hooray! j/k

Check which programs are running in the background, most of the time they are the problem. Use msconfig to turn off the ones you don't want/need running (or turn off Windows all together ;) )

I guess my point is also that I can't really check what programs are running under Windows 98 (it's a bit better under XP), because Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't show every process (unless there's some other way to see all processes that I don't know about).

Anyway, I don't see any suspicious programs running (just the usual ones we've used for months), so I still don't know what could be causing the slowdown. Perhaps we've had this problem for eons and I've just now noticed it when I started running sysmon. I guess I'll try msconfig, but I don't like to change stuff (and my dad doesn't like us to either), so I'll just look around some more and point out suspicious behavior/programs.

Start->Run, "msinfo32", Software Environment, 32-bit Modules Loaded. Also Running Tasks. Alas, there is no way to kill anything in there, you need another utility. PC Magazine released one that does the trick, IIRC. Go to their site (pcmag.com) and look around in the Utilities section.

"Cannot find the file 'msinfo32' (or one of its components)...."

I guess my Win98 SE doesn't have it. What other suggestions do you have?

I also don't like to run third party software to do low-level functions my OS should already be able to do. Shame, shame on you M$!

Buy NAV (Norton Antivirus)

I just tried msconfig, and it shows me nothing more than what I've seen already in autoexec.bat, config.sys, and even the registry. It simply provides a GUI for each of those files. I still can't find anything suspicious going on with that, so I think I'll take option number two: I'll turn off Windows altogether and use GNU/Linux! (Heck, I'm doing it right now)

Get Ad-Aware. Its free and will rid your computer of at least 90% of spyware if it has any.

I think we already have a program to remove adware and spyware, but I don't like that Windows is sometimes more remote user-friendly than local user-friendly. That is, it lets crackers and spyware sites to use your computer any way they want.

Using Windows almost feels like leaving your door wide open to thieves and pirates (Argh, me maties!).

My comp never does that, so I think it's no Windows' fault.

SE.
Due to a badly hashed, and broken API most drivers for windows are rather appaling, even the good ones.

So you try doing something system intensive - or something that sticks to what M$ claims it system does. Then it will crash / lock up / kill the system.

And why do I need to reboot the whole system 4 times just to get the base system install with no special drivers. It is stupid.

I've read somewhere about how MS is shooting itself in the foot by closing up the API's that are used for writing drivers. They closed them up hoping to keep tighter control over what drivers can do, and they expect more reliable drivers because of this.

However, the opposite is happening -- driver writers still need to write their stuff, and to do that they sometimes (need to) use undocumented or vague API's. In practice, this leads to LESS reliable drivers.

OTOH, history and experience have taught that more open API's encourage more stable applications, such as drivers. This is where *nix clearly has the advantage, and *nix sysadmins know it well.

Well yeah, any Windows version can be stable if you install it then do not even do ANYTHING with it afterwards. :P
Using the VGA driver (640x480x4 bit/16 color) and a legacy PS/2 keyboard and mouse, with NO optical drives, and no modem (at least no softmodems), with no NIC, with no soundcard, could be somewhat stable...
WinME has a memory leak... If you have WinME, you should reboot at least once a day, if you always leave your computer on. And Hibernating won't help. Or Standby.

I have Win98SE, Win2K Pro SP3, and Red Hat 8 all on the same hard drive in this computer. I use Win2K most of the time, as it hardly ever locks up on me. I'd use RH more often if the softmodem driver wouldn't lock the entire computer up after about 15 minutes of use (of the modem)... The lock lights blink at me, and I have to resort to the power button... :( The driver for kernel 2.4.2-4 or whatever RH7 has was stable... But whatever RH8 has, it isn't stable... Ugh.
And I can't get the kernel sources to install... So I can't compile the SilverLink driver... *cry*

I made a program in VB that records your record uptimes... It's almost done. (I haven't compiled in about 6 weeks and it hasn't crashed (my program) once. I have 7.5 hours on Win98 and 2 days, 5 hours or so on Win2K (that includes Hibernating time, actual on time is about 15 hours).)

You may want to look at Mandrake 9.1 it seems pretty good. Plenty functionality, easy of use and loads of hardware compatibility.

I also get very emotional about GNU/Linux and free software in general, maybe TOO emotional. My family thinks I'm a zealot or a fanatic about Linux. I keep telling them to try it, but they insist that they don't want to "relearn" everything (after I've told them they don't need to). I'm cooling off a lot now, and I just need to convert them a little at a time. For example, I had our computer logged into KDE as "guest" (which I tried to make look and feel like Win9x) and I showed my sister Patience (kpat), and I think she got hooked to it (she likes Mod3 and Aces Up). I also showed her that it can run Juno using Wine.

I try to run Linux whenever I can, but the rest of my family has some strange fascination with Win98 SE, even though it is slow, restrictive, and crashes a lot.

Oh, BTW, one thing I just LOVE about Linux is that you don't have to reboot for every little configuration change. You can change one thing and have it work immediately. That's because Unix/Linux is actually MODULAR, something that is taught in programming classes but is apparently overlooked by M$, among other things.

The next computer OS I know I will get in the future will be Linux/FreeBSD (still need to learn how to use), an Apple PowerMac (dedicated 2D and 3D gfx machine), and MAYBEY Windows 2000 (for what won't run under Wine). These are in no particular order.

Most things that you want to run under Linux but can't are games. Apparently 2k isn't the best M$ OS for this be warned.

With Linux a bit of help.
Mandrake is a windows style linux. Shove it in and away you go.
...
Debian you have a lot of control and are expect to exert it.

Ultimately you have the same control with all of it, just some is hidden for ease of use.

I will recommend no single system for you. Try different things, see what you like, and start with knoppix (no install needed) in fact you can look at it now.

Well I'm not a gammer so that should not be much of a problem. Thanks for the suggestions.

Windows isn't free? Too bad, 'cause Kazaa is. ;-)

I don't know how you guys can get Win98se to crash... I seriously can't remember the last time that it did that. And if it did, it was something that was MY fault, not the OS's fault.

ur just lucky.

Maybe it's because I don't bash Windows... so in return, it doesn't crash on me ;-)

I don't like OS's (or companies like M$) that make its users think the software problems are always the stupid user's fault (or that it's a feature, not a bug :-), whether it's crashing or some other problem.

Besides, what could be your fault that could cause an OS to crash, anyway? (Unless, of course, you intentionally killed off all critical processes; then that would be your fault)

You *are* allowed to use Windows DLL files, as long as you actually own a copy of Windows. However, WINE has to implement many of the core files itself becuase of it running under Linux.

As I state M$ code is illegal.

The goal of wine is such that it is entirely independent of Windows, it just goes there the sensible way.

And I only know one person who owns a copy of windows.
An aquaintance of his was given it to dissuade his company from moving from linux.
It didn't work though. Te He he.

So to me, all M$ code is illegal.

Yeah, I don't think I have Wine set up to use any native DLLs, except the ones it specifies Native for before builtin... I think I told it where win\sys is...

blast! why couldnt i have been sent into the universe that was created where girls actually do like programmers? Must get a new hobby to attract opposite sex... (i play sports but not many people think of handball/raquetball as a _manly_ sport and not too many girls even care about it)

Hey I do sports too. A lot more manly than that.

I do archery and Bridge.

Now there are some great sports.

Unfortunately not many girls in either. Or in engineering strangely enough. But you know what, you won't find a girl you like unless she's actuall interested in same sort of stuff as you. So relax and quit caring.

Bridge?

Visit the link.
The site hasn't been updated for a couple of weeks. But I am very busy.

I know what bridge is (my grandma and my dad play it all the time), but it's a card game...
I thought sports were physical.

This reminds me of a conversation that they had on CSI... one guy argued that sex was a sport--it was physical ;-)

Archery- yes that is a good sport, I have a nack for it
Bridge- Is that not a card game. If you want to argue that there are tournements for it, then Poker is alo a sport.

A sport is something that is competed at (tournament) at university level I do believe.

Okay the idea of bridge being a sport, as we think of sports, is a bit silly; but it is.
Don't care about poker 'tis a stupid game.

<Claim to fame>Have played at worlds oldest bridge club</claim to fame>

I do not argue it is a sport, - btw I laughed when they first said it to me - it IS a sport.

That is probably the best definition of a sport. Since Bridge is classified under the card game catigory it is usually not percieved as a sport. Thanks for brodening definitions.

Not as much as me.

Not as much as ME!

(Now this convo is pathetic ;-))