C-Span is just ESPN with only two teams.
W2 Group’s Weber said such a rebranding is “a bit old-fashioned’’ and a new name is unlikely to impress consumers. “I think the public is smarter than that now,’’ he said.
Glad to hear them at least acknowledge that. Re-branding is a terrible idea unless you plan to back it up with real changes. As an unhappy-but-basically-locked-in Comcast customer, I hope this is the real thing.
I miss the beauty of real books and the the variety of fonts and book designs. And I miss having a physical sense for how long a book is. The Kindle method of reporting the % of each book read is deeply unsatisfying. However, I find the Kindle pages very easy to read and navigate, and clicking to turn the page can be extremely handy when you have a large cat pinning down one your arms.
So that being said, if you consider yourself or would like to consider yourself a professional front-end engineer for web applications (or in any way want to become a JavaScript expert), I cannot recommend this book enough. On the one hand, you have Crockford’s The Good Parts
What Zakas gives us—while assuming that you are already doing some professional JavaScript web development—is a good overview of JavaScript/ECMAScript, with special care given to make the text practical. This is not strictly an academic exercise; he is careful to make sure that each example applies to real world scenarios (i.e., web apps running in a browser) and that you are able to take away something useful and meaningful from the text’s discussion. In other words, he provides a road map for how to make the most of JavaScript as a language[1] and how to make it work in all the convoluted, counter-intuitive situations that you are basically guaranteed to encounter[2].
In a nutshell, if you are doing professional web development on the front end, this book needs to be on your desk. I can’t wait to check out his next book[3]…
BONUS ROUND: Zakas says that Wrox has made this book available as a DRM-free ebook.
DOUBLE BONUS ROUND: Apparently, I made the man laugh.
TRIPLE BONUS ROUND: Shout from the man himself, albeit with a pointer to this review as it appears on Amazon.
Ten of Wakefield's 13 co-authors renounced the study's conclusions several years ago and The Lancet has previously said it should never have published the research.
Though the retraction is a bit of a vindication, the unfortunate truth is that the damage is done and people like Jenny McCarthy will beat this drum until the sky splits open.
An experiment (in part to settle something of academic debate); what is faster new Array() or [][1]? The function for the test case:
function makeSomeArrays(){
var outputter = function(fn){
var ts = new Date().getTime();
fn();
var te = new Date().getTime();
console.log("total time: " + (te-ts)/1000 +
" seconds");
};
// 1 million:
var L = 1000000;
// use Array constructor; push L new arrays...
var test1 = function(){
var a = new Array();
for (var i=0; i<l ; i++) {
a.push(new Array());
}
};
// same as above - but in each case,
// declare a length to the array
var test2 = function(){
var a = new Array(L);
for (var i=0; i<L; i++) {
a.push(new Array(0));
}
};
// same as above but via index assignment
var test3 = function(){
var a = new Array(L);
for (var i=0; i<L; i++) {
a[i] = new Array(0);
}
};
// for 4-6: replace Array constructor w/ Array literal
// notation except where declaring a length
// (container array, 5 + 6)
var test4 = function(){
var a = [];
for (var i=0; i<L; i++) {
a.push([]);
}
};
var test5 = function(){
var a = new Array(L);
for (var i=0; i<L; i++) {
a.push([]);
}
};
var test6 = function(){
var a = new Array(L);
for (var i=0; i<L; i++) {
a[i] = [];
}
};
var tests = [test1, test2, test3, test4, test5, test6];
for (var j=0; j<tests.length; j++) {
console.info("test #" + (j+1) + ":");
outputter(tests[j]);
}
}
Yes, I realize that test #2 and test #5 result in an array with a length of 2,000,000 (vs. 1,000,000 for the other 4 tests).
Now for some chart porn; results:
As usual in these kinds of performance tests, shorter bars mean better/faster performance. (And yes, test case #5 was wildly out-of-scale when run in Firefox[2].)
Test case #3 wins out in Firefox (1.536 seconds), but test case #6 wins in both Chrome and Safari (0.313 and 0.397 seconds, respectively). Interestingly, Safari out-performed Chrome in 4 of the 6 test cases; but Chrome came out on top overall with that 0.313 second figure for test case #6. The trick seems to be in assigning a length to the array and then assigning values to the indices instead of just pushing the values onto the end.
But this seems to wind up not answering the original question about Array() vs. []. So really quickly (in Chrome), I re-ran test #6 with a new “test #7″ that replaced a[i] = [] with a[i] = new Array(). Console output:
test #6: total time: 0.405 seconds test #7: total time: 0.892 seconds
Oh wait… that was basically the same as test #3… Hooray for Array literals!
Or: on not listening, retail communication break-downs, and getting help via so-called social networking.
In case you haven’t been following the thread[1], our family just enjoyed quite the roller coaster ride thanks to a broken dishwasher and our (ultimately, eventually successful) attempts to replace it through Best Buy. I’m sure that there’s a lesson to be learned buried somewhere deep down in the bowels of this tale. Take extra caution when purchasing from a box store? Wow, Twitter is actually good for something? I’m not exactly sure. But perhaps you can extract that nugget.
Back in December, just a little before Christmas, our dishwasher broke. Nothing that put it totally out of commission—just that the handle broke off and in order to get the thing open you had to jam two fingers up into the recesses of the door and use a whole bunch of leverage to unlatch it. So that was frustrating. Our initial over-reaction was to gut the entire kitchen and start from scratch. When we came to our senses, we realized it should just be a simple matter of replacing the dishwasher.
All other things being equal, we decided to go through Best Buy as a cost-saving measure—we had a gift card, for one thing. With that part decided, I headed down to the store with my mission: find the cheapest dishwasher that will at least “replace” the one that broke. At the store, I reviewed my options and after speaking with a salesman, decided to go up a notch to something that would meet our needs just a little bit better—and for not that much more.
Now a little bit of back-story: In the fall we had a microwave replaced (using a different vendor) and it turned into a nightmare. Delivery went fine but the vendor failed to mention that the installation (which was paid for) was not something they did for over-the-range microwaves. So we wound up having to install it ourselves. And then even after multiple phone calls, they never bothered to send their truck around again to haul away the old one, despite the fact that we’d paid for haul-away as well.
Needless to say, I made a really big deal about the delivery, installation, and haul-away aspects while discussing the dishwasher with the Best Buy sales representative. He assured me that everything would be fine—even referred me to a “worry-free” poster right there over the register. ”Sounds good,” I said. And though he warned me it would be a few weeks before the delivery/installation could happen (“…about four weeks, what with the busy holiday season and all…”), we agreed to terms, signed some paperwork, ran my credit card, and off we went.
Fast forward to the day before the scheduled delivery. I get a phone call from someone at the Best Buy store. She explains to me that she needs to apologize on behalf of the store but it seems that my original sales rep failed to mention that the dishwasher I’d paid for was in fact a special order item (“normally 6-8 weeks”) and that there was no way that they could get it to me the next day. This was unexpected but it wasn’t a tragedy[2]. We explored a few options: wait four more weeks? buy up to the next model “at cost” for another hundred bucks and get it within the week? or get a comparable item from the clearance line and get it within the week?
We settled on the comparable item from the clearance line (since even “at cost” I didn’t feel like I should have to pay more) and set up the delivery/installation date[3].
Fast forward to the next week. I jet home in the middle of work one day to meet the delivery guys. They show up and ask: ”Where do you want us to leave this?” Leave it? Immediately the delivery guys look a little sheepish. They explain that while Best Buy performs the installation for a variety of “drop-in” items (e.g., refrigerators, washers and dryers), that there are also a bunch of more complicated installations that they sub-contract (e.g., dishwashers, gas ranges). So the delivery guy (who was really quite nice, nothing against him) tries to make a few calls to find out about the installation. But he can’t seem to get in touch with anyone—no one at the store, and not the installer either. He assures me that I’ll probably hear from the installer in the next day or so but leaves me with his number in case I need to follow up with him.
In case I need to follow up with him?
I’m immediately on the phone with the store trying to reach the woman that helped me with this last round of mix-ups. I needed to know what was going on. How is it that no one told me about this before now? Only, the guy that (finally) picks up the phone tells me that she won’t be in until one o’clock and though he doesn’t offer to take the message (not that I expected him to), he did eventually agree to have her return the call after she got in[4].
The rest of the day passes. No call back from the store, and no call from the installer. And thus out of Sisyphean frustration, this tweet.
Allow us to pause there for a moment. About that tweet… Frustration sparked it. Actually doing it? Maybe I was thinking I should be charitable? Warn my pals, I suppose. Help prevent others from having dishwashers land in their dining rooms that just… sit there.
I was not expecting anything like an @reply from @ApplExpert50 with a few suggestions on how to remedy the situation. Most of which I’d tried… but that was beside the point. Someone was listening. A most unlikely set of ears—but someone was listening at least.
It seemed that a little follow-up was in order for me—but I had that in my future either way. Next thing I knew, some emails and phone calls started coming in about my order and about the installation which was requested but (apparently) never paid for and therefore never requested…
Long story short? Took another couple of days but we arrived at a satisfactory outcome, and I got my dishwasher installed[5].
So we landed in a good place. But it was a long and bumpy road. Still unpacked the whole affair. Lessons learned? Anecdotal evidence for the success of social media campaigns in managing customer service…? Perhaps more? Like I said: still unpacking it.
[Rajen Sheth, Google Apps senior product manager] suggested that customers upgrade their browsers to pretty much anything else.
For a species so famous for being adaptable to its environment, we certainly abhor change. Especially a change that involves any amount of money being spent.
For the record: my own jury is still out about this whole iPad thing; and/but for what it's worth, any praise and/or criticism from anyone that hasn't actually yet used the thing… Well, there's this little thing called credibility.
Salinger's other books don't equal the influence or sales of "Catcher," but they are still read, again and again, with great affection and intensity. Critics, at least briefly, rated Salinger as a more accomplished and daring short story writer than John Cheever.
…makes me want to read the rest of his werks.
a week with Chrome (Mac)
CalDAV repeating events
zombie phobia
“Search Term Haiku” is a series wherein I examine this site’s log files and construct one or more haiku poems from search terms and phrases that led visitors to the site. Where possible, I attempt to keep the search phrases intact. However, as these are haiku poems, I do need to follow the rules.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
