Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Domains

Domain: tersesystems.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to tersesystems.com.

Comments · 14

  1. Tanaland by ZorroXXX · · Score: 1 · on IBM Plays SimCity With Portland, Oregon
    All models are wrong - some models are useful.

    Overall I think this is a positive way of trying to improve a complex reality. There was an experiment in 1990 of an imaginary town called Tanaland, and most people failed miserably in improving the long term life conditions for its inhabitants. From http://tersesystems.com/2011/06/10/the-logic-of-failure:

    The setup was simple. Dorner set up a computer simulation of an African village called Tanaland. This book was written in 1990, and so Sim City was not widely known, but itâ(TM)s the same concept. The players were given dictatorial powers, given the goal to âoeimprove the wellbeing of the peopleâ and had six opportunities over 10 years to review (and possibly change) their policies.

    Given the tools the players had at hand, they went to improving what they could. They improved the food supply (using artifical fertilizer) and increased medical care. There were more children and fewer deaths, and lif expectancy was higher. For the first three sessions, everything went well. But unknown to the players, they'd set up an unsustainable situation.

    Famine typically broke out in the 88th month. The agarian population dropped dramatically, below what they had been initially. Sheep, goats and cows died off in their herds, and the land was left barren by the end. Given a free hand, most players engineered a wasteland.

  2. How to get the most work out of your programmers by Will+Sargent · · Score: 1 · on Are 10-11 Hour Programming Days Feasible?

    I spent a bunch of time researching this and figuring out "how you get the most work out of programmers."

    What it comes down to is that there are no shortcuts. Treating your programmers well is the best way to get the most work out of them. That doesn't mean pampering them, but 10 hour days are just going to hammer them if kept on for more than two weeks.

    Here are the blog posts:

    http://tersesystems.com/2007/08/16/getting-work-out-of-programmers-part-1

    http://tersesystems.com/2007/08/20/getting-work-out-of-programmers-part-2

    Good luck.

  3. How to get the most work out of your programmers by Will+Sargent · · Score: 1 · on Are 10-11 Hour Programming Days Feasible?

    I spent a bunch of time researching this and figuring out "how you get the most work out of programmers."

    What it comes down to is that there are no shortcuts. Treating your programmers well is the best way to get the most work out of them. That doesn't mean pampering them, but 10 hour days are just going to hammer them if kept on for more than two weeks.

    Here are the blog posts:

    http://tersesystems.com/2007/08/16/getting-work-out-of-programmers-part-1

    http://tersesystems.com/2007/08/20/getting-work-out-of-programmers-part-2

    Good luck.

  4. better-than-dia diagramming *nix application? by alizard · · Score: 1 · on Is it Time for Open Office?
    Yes, there is one, for *nix / Windows / Solaris.

    It's Visual Thought, freeware / abandonware from Confluent. (they stopped selling it in 2002) IMHO, it's excellent (I've tried dia, and agree with you). It does everything you asked for and a few things you didn't.

    Learn more about it here
    The bad news is that it needs to be ported to Linux, the Windows version is a major reason why I run Windows in VMware Server on this box, I have yet to successfully install it on Linux, it blows immediately as soon as one starts the install script with the following error message:

    The following file is not available:
    <br><br>
    admin/admin_ch.;1


    If you want to try it out - warning... grab the VT14.zip instead of the separate tar.gz files, unzip them and you'll get all the downloadable tar.gz files in working form. (in the separate files, hpux blows out with a CRC / length errors on untarring)
  5. Tried it, didn't like it by Will+Sargent · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Java Development: Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEA?
    I didn't like the Java editor. There are many things that IntelliJ does differently, but there are very few things I could say that IntelliJ does that Eclipse doesn't in the Java editor. At least for 4.5.4. I have no experience with 5.0.

    However, the JSP and XML support in IntelliJ freaking rocks. Live templates combined with the IntelliJ JSP editor is enough that I switch out of Eclipse to IntelliJ whenever I have to edit JSP, even though I have WTP installed. I've been told that JDeveloper and Netbeans also have JSP editor support, but haven't looked at them closely.

  6. Re:I found this book tremendously useful by Will+Sargent · · Score: 1 · on Getting Things Done
    I prefer Ecco Pro as a tabbed outliner -- it's pretty much the best, most full featured outliner I've ever seen. And it's free.

    Also see the previous slashdot article about this and my own long boring post.

  7. YES by Will+Sargent · · Score: 3, Informative · on Can My Desktop Make It in the Big Leagues?
    Yes, there are real differences between server equipment and desktop equipment. Most desktop components are built to be fast, cheap, and unreliable. They can and will flake if left on for long enough and subjected to server-grade levels of abuse.

    More details here.

  8. SFF computer by Will+Sargent · · Score: 1 · on High Performance Gaming Laptops On A Budget?
    I have a Sager 5670, but I just got an Athlon 64 to play games.

    The Sager is good for things like Half-Life, but anything recent like Far Cry will kill it instantly. There's just no comparison between graphics cards for FPS. However, it plays Total Annihilation like no-one's business.

    If you want a games machine, get a small form factor PC. Arstechnica has a handy buyer's guide, and the hot rod comes out to less than 2K (although w/o monitor).

  9. Visual Thought by Will+Sargent · · Score: 2, Informative · on Software for Making Company Diagrams?

    Visual Thought is freeware. Works on Windows, Solaris, HP, and Linux (under Wine).

  10. Ecco Pro and Shadow Plan by Will+Sargent · · Score: 4, Informative · on Getting Things Done?
    There's a mailing list, GtD_Palm. It looks at different ways to implement GTD.

    There's also an Outlook plugin available.

    I like using Ecco Pro and Shadow Plan. Details here and here.

  11. Ecco Pro and Shadow Plan by Will+Sargent · · Score: 4, Informative · on Getting Things Done?
    There's a mailing list, GtD_Palm. It looks at different ways to implement GTD.

    There's also an Outlook plugin available.

    I like using Ecco Pro and Shadow Plan. Details here and here.

  12. Ecco Pro with Shadow Palm and DateBk5 by Will+Sargent · · Score: 5, Informative · on Palm Desktop Replacement?
    There was a pretty huge list of PIMs, but the market was exterminated by Microsoft Outlook and never really recovered. In addition, only some of them integration with Palms.

    http://john.redmood.com/organizers.html
    http://www.ypsolog.com/docs/comp/other/pim.html
    http://www.ms.lt/ms/projects/toolkinds/organize.ht ml

    The odds are good that you'll find something that works.

    I personally use Ecco Pro, Shadow Palm and DateBk5.

    But then again, I'm a zealot.

  13. Ecco Pro with Shadow Palm and DateBk5 by Will+Sargent · · Score: 5, Informative · on Palm Desktop Replacement?
    There was a pretty huge list of PIMs, but the market was exterminated by Microsoft Outlook and never really recovered. In addition, only some of them integration with Palms.

    http://john.redmood.com/organizers.html
    http://www.ypsolog.com/docs/comp/other/pim.html
    http://www.ms.lt/ms/projects/toolkinds/organize.ht ml

    The odds are good that you'll find something that works.

    I personally use Ecco Pro, Shadow Palm and DateBk5.

    But then again, I'm a zealot.

  14. DBVisualizer or Visual Thought by Will+Sargent · · Score: 1, Offtopic · on ERD Apps a Missing OSS Niche?

    A shameless plug for Visual Thought. It won't do ERD automatically, but it's great for the stuff you'd use a whiteboard for usually.

    If you want to look at the structure of an existing database, try DBVisualizer