I'm looking for a tape library and drive emulator for Windows, preferable one that is emulating an SAS / SCSI interface. There used to be a tool called VMCE (Virtual Media Changer Emulator), but it doesn't seem to be available anymore.

I'm not looking for any VTL solution but for something that just fakes an robotic autoloader like the Overland Neo series (which sells under various names, Tandberg for example) . Windows is a hard requirement in this case.

I'm planning to write a little how-to where a tape lib is involved and I don't want to use my real one at work

Late breakfast with my wife

Good write-up.

About OpenSuSE: It's very popular, that's true, But it's not a base distro. OpenSuSE was derived from SuSE which was derived from Slackware, which in fact is on of the three large base distros.

There's a wonderful diagram over at Wikimedia:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg

Well. it's 23:49 here (11:49pm for those of you who can only count up to twelve ;))

Good night ML.

@scottalanmiller said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@scottalanmiller said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@scottalanmiller said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@scottalanmiller said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@dafyre said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

No need to fiddle around with gcc toolchains, makefiles and whatnot.

This is one of the reasons I enjoyed developing with Visual Basic in Windows, and Gambas in Linux... I didn't have to muss around with Make files, etc... The system handled all that for me in the background.

I've switched to almost exclusively developing for the web now.

Yeah, it's odd. I'm asking myself why there are so much Java courses for students, but only a very few for C#. The .NET ecosystem is the best thing I have seen so far: Very well documented, very few bugs, runs on different platforms (ARM, x86, PPC..) and operating systems. Must be because Visual Studio wasn't always free. On the other hand, mono got its own compiler for many, many years now.

.NET is Windows centric and not appropriate to teach at university. It's also not nearly as common as Java. It's a good system for sure, but it is not academically apropos. Java is far from the only good option, but .NET is only appropriate as a side elective and as university should not be focusing on specifics, it's not really appropriate at all. If you learn Java, C# is a few days of work away from you.

.NET isn't so Windows centric anymore. Large parts of the framework are open source now and mono became a very good runtime today. In fact, I'm doing lots of stuff in C# on my ARM boards. Visual Studio is free for students and small companies. MonoDevelop is also ok. Not comparable in any way, but ok.

That's extremely recent and it's not really ported yet and Mono is... weak. I have high hopes, as I love C# and F# (heck, I wrote the certification tests for C#!!) will get wide adoption. But I'm not holding my breath.

You did? Hell, maybe I should get one just to see your test

Yes, only one, not the entire series. One of the Previsor ones. I've written about a dozen certification exams over the years. I once had a job require me to take my own test in an interview. They were idiots. I told them ahead of time that I wrote it and then they nearly shit themselves when I scored the highest core ever. I wasn't sure if they thought that I was an idiot and could not pass my own test or if they thought I was lying. In either case, I wasn't too impressed.

I guess that I wouldn't want to work there anyway. I've always refused to take any test myself. "Thanks for the coffee, but no, bye". Got an offer from MS once, they sent me a test in a wordfile with some very, very stupid questions like "How many windows do you see when you open this developer tool?" REALLY, WHO CARES? Anyway, told them that if they send me that test by mail and I'm given like 4 hours for it to complete, I can easily cheat them by just using Google (or Yahoo). The lady on the other side didn't understand that.

Well I had to be somewhat impressed that they were paying hundreds of dollars per candidate to basically have me evaluating their candidates. But it also meant that I was way, way above what they were prepared to be working with. They wanted someone for a position that I would be hiring and mentoring. But you have to give them some credit for picking me as the person that they wanted evaluating people, even if indirectly

Aye

@scottalanmiller said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@scottalanmiller said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@scottalanmiller said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@dafyre said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

No need to fiddle around with gcc toolchains, makefiles and whatnot.

This is one of the reasons I enjoyed developing with Visual Basic in Windows, and Gambas in Linux... I didn't have to muss around with Make files, etc... The system handled all that for me in the background.

I've switched to almost exclusively developing for the web now.

Yeah, it's odd. I'm asking myself why there are so much Java courses for students, but only a very few for C#. The .NET ecosystem is the best thing I have seen so far: Very well documented, very few bugs, runs on different platforms (ARM, x86, PPC..) and operating systems. Must be because Visual Studio wasn't always free. On the other hand, mono got its own compiler for many, many years now.

.NET is Windows centric and not appropriate to teach at university. It's also not nearly as common as Java. It's a good system for sure, but it is not academically apropos. Java is far from the only good option, but .NET is only appropriate as a side elective and as university should not be focusing on specifics, it's not really appropriate at all. If you learn Java, C# is a few days of work away from you.

.NET isn't so Windows centric anymore. Large parts of the framework are open source now and mono became a very good runtime today. In fact, I'm doing lots of stuff in C# on my ARM boards. Visual Studio is free for students and small companies. MonoDevelop is also ok. Not comparable in any way, but ok.

That's extremely recent and it's not really ported yet and Mono is... weak. I have high hopes, as I love C# and F# (heck, I wrote the certification tests for C#!!) will get wide adoption. But I'm not holding my breath.

You did? Hell, maybe I should get one just to see your test

Yes, only one, not the entire series. One of the Previsor ones. I've written about a dozen certification exams over the years. I once had a job require me to take my own test in an interview. They were idiots. I told them ahead of time that I wrote it and then they nearly shit themselves when I scored the highest core ever. I wasn't sure if they thought that I was an idiot and could not pass my own test or if they thought I was lying. In either case, I wasn't too impressed.

I guess that I wouldn't want to work there anyway. I've always refused to take any test myself. "Thanks for the coffee, but no, bye". Got an offer from MS once, they sent me a test in a wordfile with some very, very stupid questions like "How many windows do you see when you open this developer tool?" REALLY, WHO CARES? Anyway, told them that if they send me that test by mail and I'm given like 4 hours for it to complete, I can easily cheat them by just using Google (or Yahoo). The lady on the other side didn't understand that.

@scottalanmiller said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@scottalanmiller said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@dafyre said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

No need to fiddle around with gcc toolchains, makefiles and whatnot.

This is one of the reasons I enjoyed developing with Visual Basic in Windows, and Gambas in Linux... I didn't have to muss around with Make files, etc... The system handled all that for me in the background.

I've switched to almost exclusively developing for the web now.

Yeah, it's odd. I'm asking myself why there are so much Java courses for students, but only a very few for C#. The .NET ecosystem is the best thing I have seen so far: Very well documented, very few bugs, runs on different platforms (ARM, x86, PPC..) and operating systems. Must be because Visual Studio wasn't always free. On the other hand, mono got its own compiler for many, many years now.

.NET is Windows centric and not appropriate to teach at university. It's also not nearly as common as Java. It's a good system for sure, but it is not academically apropos. Java is far from the only good option, but .NET is only appropriate as a side elective and as university should not be focusing on specifics, it's not really appropriate at all. If you learn Java, C# is a few days of work away from you.

.NET isn't so Windows centric anymore. Large parts of the framework are open source now and mono became a very good runtime today. In fact, I'm doing lots of stuff in C# on my ARM boards. Visual Studio is free for students and small companies. MonoDevelop is also ok. Not comparable in any way, but ok.

That's extremely recent and it's not really ported yet and Mono is... weak. I have high hopes, as I love C# and F# (heck, I wrote the certification tests for C#!!) will get wide adoption. But I'm not holding my breath.

If you keep in mind what those guys did... awesome job. Mono has its flaws, ASP.NET in ARM-Linux is nothing but masochistic. But it is working for the most part.

@scottalanmiller said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@scottalanmiller said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@dafyre said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

No need to fiddle around with gcc toolchains, makefiles and whatnot.

This is one of the reasons I enjoyed developing with Visual Basic in Windows, and Gambas in Linux... I didn't have to muss around with Make files, etc... The system handled all that for me in the background.

I've switched to almost exclusively developing for the web now.

Yeah, it's odd. I'm asking myself why there are so much Java courses for students, but only a very few for C#. The .NET ecosystem is the best thing I have seen so far: Very well documented, very few bugs, runs on different platforms (ARM, x86, PPC..) and operating systems. Must be because Visual Studio wasn't always free. On the other hand, mono got its own compiler for many, many years now.

.NET is Windows centric and not appropriate to teach at university. It's also not nearly as common as Java. It's a good system for sure, but it is not academically apropos. Java is far from the only good option, but .NET is only appropriate as a side elective and as university should not be focusing on specifics, it's not really appropriate at all. If you learn Java, C# is a few days of work away from you.

.NET isn't so Windows centric anymore. Large parts of the framework are open source now and mono became a very good runtime today. In fact, I'm doing lots of stuff in C# on my ARM boards. Visual Studio is free for students and small companies. MonoDevelop is also ok. Not comparable in any way, but ok.

That's extremely recent and it's not really ported yet and Mono is... weak. I have high hopes, as I love C# and F# (heck, I wrote the certification tests for C#!!) will get wide adoption. But I'm not holding my breath.

You did? Hell, maybe I should get one just to see your test

@scottalanmiller said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@dafyre said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

No need to fiddle around with gcc toolchains, makefiles and whatnot.

This is one of the reasons I enjoyed developing with Visual Basic in Windows, and Gambas in Linux... I didn't have to muss around with Make files, etc... The system handled all that for me in the background.

I've switched to almost exclusively developing for the web now.

Yeah, it's odd. I'm asking myself why there are so much Java courses for students, but only a very few for C#. The .NET ecosystem is the best thing I have seen so far: Very well documented, very few bugs, runs on different platforms (ARM, x86, PPC..) and operating systems. Must be because Visual Studio wasn't always free. On the other hand, mono got its own compiler for many, many years now.

.NET is Windows centric and not appropriate to teach at university. It's also not nearly as common as Java. It's a good system for sure, but it is not academically apropos. Java is far from the only good option, but .NET is only appropriate as a side elective and as university should not be focusing on specifics, it's not really appropriate at all. If you learn Java, C# is a few days of work away from you.

.NET isn't so Windows centric anymore. Large parts of the framework are open source now and mono became a very good runtime today. In fact, I'm doing lots of stuff in C# on my ARM boards. Visual Studio is free for students and small companies. MonoDevelop is also ok. Not comparable in any way, but ok.

@scottalanmiller said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@dafyre said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

No need to fiddle around with gcc toolchains, makefiles and whatnot.

This is one of the reasons I enjoyed developing with Visual Basic in Windows, and Gambas in Linux... I didn't have to muss around with Make files, etc... The system handled all that for me in the background.

I've switched to almost exclusively developing for the web now.

Yeah, it's odd. I'm asking myself why there are so much Java courses for students, but only a very few for C#. The .NET ecosystem is the best thing I have seen so far: Very well documented, very few bugs, runs on different platforms (ARM, x86, PPC..) and operating systems. Must be because Visual Studio wasn't always free. On the other hand, mono got its own compiler for many, many years now.

.NET is Windows centric and not appropriate to teach at university. It's also not nearly as common as Java. It's a good system for sure, but it is not academically apropos. Java is far from the only good option, but .NET is only appropriate as a side elective and as university should not be focusing on specifics, it's not really appropriate at all. If you learn Java, C# is a few days of work away from you.

Partly agree. There is so much crap about Java and I have seen more than one student who started to adapt that. Another problem with Java is related to this: its a language many people starting with. So there are loads of false or poorly written information, tutorials and libraries around. But yes, you can't avoid that. It's the same with PHP for example and would be the same if C# would be the primary language.

@dafyre said in Non-IT News Thread:

@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:

@dafyre said in Non-IT News Thread:

@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:

http://www.ktvq.com/story/32403198/wyoming-teen-playing-new-pokemon-game-on-phone-discovers-body

Is this why your wife was wandering around a field today?

Yup. The game, not because of the bodies out there.

Well...At least she hasn't found any yet.

Bodies or Pokemons?

@dafyre said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

@thwr said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

No need to fiddle around with gcc toolchains, makefiles and whatnot.

This is one of the reasons I enjoyed developing with Visual Basic in Windows, and Gambas in Linux... I didn't have to muss around with Make files, etc... The system handled all that for me in the background.

I've switched to almost exclusively developing for the web now.

Yeah, it's odd. I'm asking myself why there are so much Java courses for students, but only a very few for C#. The .NET ecosystem is the best thing I have seen so far: Very well documented, very few bugs, runs on different platforms (ARM, x86, PPC..) and operating systems. Must be because Visual Studio wasn't always free. On the other hand, mono got its own compiler for many, many years now.

On the other hand, if you start with Eclipse, you need to setup how to debug for each and every project. You need to setup your "views" or "perspectives". That's a disabler, IMHO. Never liked Eclipse, but I need to use it for some JavaCard based smartcard development at times.

@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@thwr said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@BRRABill said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@thwr said

Why not? You learned something about Linux and its flavors today.

Yeah but I am also getting my ass kicked on Linux filesystems, haha.

Easy, I guess you didn't learn everything about Windows filesystems during a single day. In Linux, it's all about making a choice. There are plenty of filesystems like ext2..4, btrfs, zfs, xfs but also other things like gluster or even some very special things like unionfs (mentioned that just today here at ML) for example. Same for your text editor: Like vim? nano? emacs? What boot system do you like? Are you more the upstart guy? Or systemd? Bootloader: LILO or grub/grub2?

For example, Windows has FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, ReFS, ISO9660 and more that you need to know. Plus they have Basic (Partitioned) and Dynamic (LVM) disks. They have symlinks and hardlinks. They have mount points. Plus they have that pesky lettering system that is totally unique and extra compared to any major OS. There is Windows Software RAID and SoFS now, too.

To add a few: EXFAT, UFS and various other optical media related filesystems

Most people I've met never heard about hardlinks in Windows Keep in mind, Symlinks do not work exactly like symlinks in POSIX filesystems. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365006(v=vs.85).aspx

@StrongBad said in Free Programming Courses - July 2016:

Compilers are nice with the feedback, but they cause you to spend so much time learning the compiler and dealing with overhead. I think for a first timer just learning that scripting is often easier and faster.

Depends. I'm not a Microsoft fanboy, but if you start with Visual Studio Community Edition for example, you will get a full blown and very mighty dev env where you can create a project, hit F5 and you will have a result. No need to fiddle around with gcc toolchains, makefiles and whatnot.

@BRRABill said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@thwr said

Why not? You learned something about Linux and its flavors today.

Yeah but I am also getting my ass kicked on Linux filesystems, haha.

Easy, I guess you didn't learn everything about Windows filesystems during a single day. In Linux, it's all about making a choice. There are plenty of filesystems like ext2..4, btrfs, zfs, xfs but also other things like gluster or even some very special things like unionfs (mentioned that just today here at ML) for example. Same for your text editor: Like vim? nano? emacs? What boot system do you like? Are you more the upstart guy? Or systemd? Bootloader: LILO or grub/grub2?

Linux (or the world of the "userland") isn't something you will master in a week or so. It takes years. Just try to understand the concepts.

@thwr said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@thwr said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Story of my gaming life... scrolling through games not knowing what to play.

yepp...

Or maybe something like Wing Commander Privateer or Freelancer. Both are great games. Is there something comparable?

EDIT:

Oh how much I love the Origin client... "Download queued", "Update queued"... and stuck.

But I really love SysInternals tools: Origins download cache was pointing to an external USB harddrive that wasn't attached to my PC. Couldn't change the cache location in the client because it tried to delete files in the old cache before moving to the new location. Poor application design.

@thwr said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Story of my gaming life... scrolling through games not knowing what to play.

yepp...

Or maybe something like Wing Commander Privateer or Freelancer. Both are great games. Is there something comparable?

EDIT:

Oh how much I love the Origin client... "Download queued", "Update queued"... and stuck.

@BRRABill said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Some days I leave ML feeling like I contributed and learned.

Today is not one of those days!

Why not? You learned something about Linux and its flavors today.

@scottalanmiller said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Story of my gaming life... scrolling through games not knowing what to play.

yepp...

Or maybe something like Wing Commander Privateer or Freelancer. Both are great games. Is there something comparable?

EDIT: