I've heard a lot of people say stuff like "I love python but it needs something like CPAN which the perl community has (like the Vaults of Parnassus don't exist or something - anyway - I digress). Hopefully this will please those people.
I've heard people decry the fact that most Open-Source projects are now hosted on Source Forge (primarily I think because they were worried about the company suddenly going out of business or doing something crummy and underhanded). I guess this is one of the other consequences of having a centralised repository.
I don't have the flash plugin installed on my computer - I just don't ever want to watch that crap. If a site can't be bothered making it's self work/look o.k. without flash then I'm not interested. Yet I can often see the IBM codernaut ads you refer to. Either they're serving me a more static version because I don't have flash, or you're mistaken in thinking that the ads are done in flash. So which is it?
A friend of mine has works in I.T. with a number of organizations that have deployed SAP systems, and his dad works with SAP also. From what he said it wasn't necessarily the cost of the software that was that big, it was the installation/configuration that was the real killer (and of course this would vary between organizations). He's worked in places that have hired armies of consultants, spent 18 months, and budgeted millions for something he thought should have taken a few people 3 months. He even said they hired "Change Counsellors" to help staff deal with the emotional impact that changes resulting from the SAP implementation would bring, and taught the staff to juggle to help them "think outside the box".
I know this might be a bit off-topic and not what you want but a "low-tech" solution might be to create a web-page for staff to log into and input their equipment, peripherals etc. Either give them very specific information on how to get the more difficult to find information (serial numbers of internal components etc), or write some software that can run on their machine and list it/automatically post it to the server.
I'm a right hander (along with 95% of the rest of the population) but I used to use my "generic" (left or right handed) mouse left handed because it suited me better. I had no trouble using it left handed, and no trouble swapping to using the mouse right-handed when I got an ergonomic one, so what's your problem? Anyway, why not learn keyboard shortcuts. They're quicker anyway.
I know it sounds absurd (and may not be true, please correct me if you know I'm wrong) but apparently during the "Great War" (WWI) the germans had patents on certain chemicals or processes (I'm not sure which) used in munitions. In spite of the fact that they were at war with them the british did not use those chemicals/processes, and as a result about 1/3 of their rounds was defective. How much the world has changed.
I didn't get that from the article at all. Firstly, the assumption that each gene codes for a single protien has been disproved by the mapping of the human genome. This has been assumed until recently so yes, something was waaaaay off. I'm not sure if I agree that he was arguing that finding which genes were responsible for certain diseases was pointless either. I think he was arguing that the expectation that many people involved in the project held (or at least expressed) was that sequencing the human genome would directly benefit sufferers of genetic diseases (even though we currently have way to utilize this information at present) was dishonest, or at least ingenuous. I think it is perhaps more an issue of how research is funded and how scientists talk up the possible benefits of their research without being realistic.
I'd have to disagree. As the author points out progress has been made - some pretty basic assumptions about genetics - namely that one gene codes for one protien - will need to be changed as a result of this research. The author explores quite nicely how Mendel's "Gene" was not in any way physical - while we have reduced a gene to a sequence of amino-acids his meaning for them was much broader and more abstract (and apparently more correct). The author also points out how a serise of incremental discoveries, while each one correct in it's self, can lead you a bit off track - which I believe is the case here.
I don't think the author is slamming the genome project, rather saying that those who thought that simply decoding it was going to tell us everything were kidding themselves, the public and the government who had to foot the bill. He also points out that "knowing that gene X codes for condition Y" has not brought us any closer to cures or treatment for Y. Also, the number of condition Y's that can be conveniently mapped to a single gene are quite small, and (if there was a benefit for knowing that X caused Y - which thus far there has not been) that only a small proportion of the population would benefit.
I think this 'Ruby' has been around since (about) this time also - perhaps this other Ruby might beat it by a couple of years but it has been around for a while.
A friend of mine found out that Clary Sage oil had psychadelic properties when combined with alcohol, so he slipped some to another friend of mine when he was knackered. Friend B had a great conversation with a little green man, but later when he and I (friend B that is) tried to reproduce the effects it just tasted fscking disgusting. The alcohol still got us quite drunk tough.
I'm sorry, but I have to take exception to this. If you saw this article and didn't know what Bonobo was what would I do? I'd look at the picture - the gnome foot - ah! it something related to Gnome (and therefore Linux). How hard is it to a) - either look at the links in the story b) look for other stories on/. on the same topic or c) see what google turns up? BTW I think X might have been out for a while now;).
I think this sort of system would raise concerns no matter what company (or government organization) was undertaking them. Basically who else will be privy to this information? What right do I retain over the information that is stored about me? etc. The fact that it's Microsoft just adds a whole lot more concerns. Even if they had the best intentions and were doing this for free without any thought of making money off it, reselling info etc you just have to wonder whether they could implement it properly, or whether the directive of "ease of use over security" will win out again.
Try explaining it to your kid brother / sister / son / daugher whatever. If you can't easily explain how the company you're thinking about working for is going to make it's money think twice.
I've only used UML a few times, so more experience practitioners may have different experiences, but I'm not a big fan. Firstly there is the ambiguity of UML - not necessarily the ambiguity of the language it's self - but in the way people interpret it. I can't really show a client a use-case diagram and ask them if it's correct, and each developer you show a diagram to seems to have a slightly different interpretation of how the system should function. I know this problem arises with any form of communication but the simplicity of boxes and arrows coupled with the familiarity of written communication would probably result in less ambiguity and confusion. Secondly, the UML tool I've used (Visio Enterprise) was really crap. Here's some of the reasons the people over at Wiki consider UML Harmful
I downloaded and installed this patch as soon as I read about this problem on/. last week. I am running IE5.5 Service Pack 1 which (If I remember correctly) should have been covered by this patch. I still got the "error" message saying the patch was not needed. I was going to post back to/. telling everyone it was a dud patch but then my manager walked in and started to ask how our deadline was going and I never got around to it.
Yes, I keep reading about Ruby taking over from Perl "in Japan", and Ruby taking over from Python "in Japan", so what? Remember, Spinal Tap was big "in Japan". What makes the Japanese better arbiters of programming languages than anyone else? I certainly don't see heaps of mind-blowing software coming out of Japan (except perhaps for Metal Gear Solid 2, but that's another story...)
I was going to mention this too. I found the article about the tetrachromatic mutant females very interesting. Women can apparently see more different colours than men anyway (that's why men should take notice when women say that two colours don't GO together), but the couple of mutants they identified actually had a fourth type of cone receptor in their eyes (if I remember rightly), and thus were able to spot differences in hues much more accurately than non-mutants.
I liked the larger description of the 'Programming Parrot' book. There were some real gems there - Jarrot, ParroTK and the Vaults of Madagascar. I nearly wet my pants laughing so hard.
Sorry, I don't have the inclination to waste time and bandwidth on stuff that looks like it might be crap. The guy with the bone in his mouth didn't inspire any confidence. Sites like fucked company or Netslaves and Bubble Economy do a fine job of pointing out the idiocy of the "new economy" thanks very much. As far as my story not getting posted - I'd like to see the submission queue opened up so people could vote on which submissions they'd like to see added.
I may be a simpleton - if this is the case please ignore the following suggestion - do an XOR of each bit in the exe file - save the binary data as a bitmap or something (maybe even the splash screen just to have a good excuse to distribute it) - then when you want to do your checksum just xor the part you need to do the checksum on first?
Perhaps I have a low tolerance for stupidity but seeing a few pictures of a fat(ish) guy with a dog buiscuit in his mouth doesn't constitute fun stuff to me. Obviously I'm not 1337 enought to have stuff that I've submitted like this rather funny parody of/. that ddj is running posted. (not even in "ask slashdot" which will put up pretty much any crap). Granted, I didn't look at any of the videos etc for this one but it seemd a bit lame to me.
It's in the latest VS.Net beta as standard. I haven't used it though, what reason do I have to think that a beta version of the new VSS will work O.K. when the production version of VSS in the last version of Visual Studio didn't?
Slashdot Mirror
I've heard a lot of people say stuff like "I love python but it needs something like CPAN which the perl community has (like the Vaults of Parnassus don't exist or something - anyway - I digress). Hopefully this will please those people.
I've heard people decry the fact that most Open-Source projects are now hosted on Source Forge (primarily I think because they were worried about the company suddenly going out of business or doing something crummy and underhanded). I guess this is one of the other consequences of having a centralised repository.
I don't have the flash plugin installed on my computer - I just don't ever want to watch that crap. If a site can't be bothered making it's self work/look o.k. without flash then I'm not interested. Yet I can often see the IBM codernaut ads you refer to. Either they're serving me a more static version because I don't have flash, or you're mistaken in thinking that the ads are done in flash. So which is it?
A friend of mine has works in I.T. with a number of organizations that have deployed SAP systems, and his dad works with SAP also. From what he said it wasn't necessarily the cost of the software that was that big, it was the installation/configuration that was the real killer (and of course this would vary between organizations). He's worked in places that have hired armies of consultants, spent 18 months, and budgeted millions for something he thought should have taken a few people 3 months. He even said they hired "Change Counsellors" to help staff deal with the emotional impact that changes resulting from the SAP implementation would bring, and taught the staff to juggle to help them "think outside the box".
I know this might be a bit off-topic and not what you want but a "low-tech" solution might be to create a web-page for staff to log into and input their equipment, peripherals etc. Either give them very specific information on how to get the more difficult to find information (serial numbers of internal components etc), or write some software that can run on their machine and list it/automatically post it to the server.
just a thought.
I'm a right hander (along with 95% of the rest of the population) but I used to use my "generic" (left or right handed) mouse left handed because it suited me better. I had no trouble using it left handed, and no trouble swapping to using the mouse right-handed when I got an ergonomic one, so what's your problem? Anyway, why not learn keyboard shortcuts. They're quicker anyway.
I know it sounds absurd (and may not be true, please correct me if you know I'm wrong) but apparently during the "Great War" (WWI) the germans had patents on certain chemicals or processes (I'm not sure which) used in munitions. In spite of the fact that they were at war with them the british did not use those chemicals/processes, and as a result about 1/3 of their rounds was defective. How much the world has changed.
You could always write them a letter - if you took the necessary precautions you could still remain an AC.
I didn't get that from the article at all. Firstly, the assumption that each gene codes for a single protien has been disproved by the mapping of the human genome. This has been assumed until recently so yes, something was waaaaay off. I'm not sure if I agree that he was arguing that finding which genes were responsible for certain diseases was pointless either. I think he was arguing that the expectation that many people involved in the project held (or at least expressed) was that sequencing the human genome would directly benefit sufferers of genetic diseases (even though we currently have way to utilize this information at present) was dishonest, or at least ingenuous. I think it is perhaps more an issue of how research is funded and how scientists talk up the possible benefits of their research without being realistic.
I'd have to disagree. As the author points out progress has been made - some pretty basic assumptions about genetics - namely that one gene codes for one protien - will need to be changed as a result of this research. The author explores quite nicely how Mendel's "Gene" was not in any way physical - while we have reduced a gene to a sequence of amino-acids his meaning for them was much broader and more abstract (and apparently more correct). The author also points out how a serise of incremental discoveries, while each one correct in it's self, can lead you a bit off track - which I believe is the case here. I don't think the author is slamming the genome project, rather saying that those who thought that simply decoding it was going to tell us everything were kidding themselves, the public and the government who had to foot the bill. He also points out that "knowing that gene X codes for condition Y" has not brought us any closer to cures or treatment for Y. Also, the number of condition Y's that can be conveniently mapped to a single gene are quite small, and (if there was a benefit for knowing that X caused Y - which thus far there has not been) that only a small proportion of the population would benefit.
I think this 'Ruby' has been around since (about) this time also - perhaps this other Ruby might beat it by a couple of years but it has been around for a while.
Bruce Eckel is already writing "Thinking In Python" - I guess he knows the good stuff when he sees it.
A friend of mine found out that Clary Sage oil had psychadelic properties when combined with alcohol, so he slipped some to another friend of mine when he was knackered. Friend B had a great conversation with a little green man, but later when he and I (friend B that is) tried to reproduce the effects it just tasted fscking disgusting. The alcohol still got us quite drunk tough.
I'm sorry, but I have to take exception to this. If you saw this article and didn't know what Bonobo was what would I do? I'd look at the picture - the gnome foot - ah! it something related to Gnome (and therefore Linux). How hard is it to a) - either look at the links in the story b) look for other stories on /. on the same topic or c) see what google turns up? BTW I think X might have been out for a while now ;).
I think this sort of system would raise concerns no matter what company (or government organization) was undertaking them. Basically who else will be privy to this information? What right do I retain over the information that is stored about me? etc. The fact that it's Microsoft just adds a whole lot more concerns. Even if they had the best intentions and were doing this for free without any thought of making money off it, reselling info etc you just have to wonder whether they could implement it properly, or whether the directive of "ease of use over security" will win out again.
Try explaining it to your kid brother / sister / son / daugher whatever. If you can't easily explain how the company you're thinking about working for is going to make it's money think twice.
I've only used UML a few times, so more experience practitioners may have different experiences, but I'm not a big fan. Firstly there is the ambiguity of UML - not necessarily the ambiguity of the language it's self - but in the way people interpret it. I can't really show a client a use-case diagram and ask them if it's correct, and each developer you show a diagram to seems to have a slightly different interpretation of how the system should function. I know this problem arises with any form of communication but the simplicity of boxes and arrows coupled with the familiarity of written communication would probably result in less ambiguity and confusion. Secondly, the UML tool I've used (Visio Enterprise) was really crap. Here's some of the reasons the people over at Wiki consider UML Harmful
I downloaded and installed this patch as soon as I read about this problem on /. last week. I am running IE5.5 Service Pack 1 which (If I remember correctly) should have been covered by this patch. I still got the "error" message saying the patch was not needed. I was going to post back to /. telling everyone it was a dud patch but then my manager walked in and started to ask how our deadline was going and I never got around to it.
Yes, I keep reading about Ruby taking over from Perl "in Japan", and Ruby taking over from Python "in Japan", so what? Remember, Spinal Tap was big "in Japan". What makes the Japanese better arbiters of programming languages than anyone else? I certainly don't see heaps of mind-blowing software coming out of Japan (except perhaps for Metal Gear Solid 2, but that's another story...)
I was going to mention this too. I found the article about the tetrachromatic mutant females very interesting. Women can apparently see more different colours than men anyway (that's why men should take notice when women say that two colours don't GO together), but the couple of mutants they identified actually had a fourth type of cone receptor in their eyes (if I remember rightly), and thus were able to spot differences in hues much more accurately than non-mutants.
I liked the larger description of the 'Programming Parrot' book. There were some real gems there - Jarrot, ParroTK and the Vaults of Madagascar. I nearly wet my pants laughing so hard.
Sorry, I don't have the inclination to waste time and bandwidth on stuff that looks like it might be crap. The guy with the bone in his mouth didn't inspire any confidence. Sites like fucked company or Netslaves and Bubble Economy do a fine job of pointing out the idiocy of the "new economy" thanks very much. As far as my story not getting posted - I'd like to see the submission queue opened up so people could vote on which submissions they'd like to see added.
I may be a simpleton - if this is the case please ignore the following suggestion - do an XOR of each bit in the exe file - save the binary data as a bitmap or something (maybe even the splash screen just to have a good excuse to distribute it) - then when you want to do your checksum just xor the part you need to do the checksum on first?
Perhaps I have a low tolerance for stupidity but seeing a few pictures of a fat(ish) guy with a dog buiscuit in his mouth doesn't constitute fun stuff to me. Obviously I'm not 1337 enought to have stuff that I've submitted like this rather funny parody of /. that ddj is running posted. (not even in "ask slashdot" which will put up pretty much any crap). Granted, I didn't look at any of the videos etc for this one but it seemd a bit lame to me.
It's in the latest VS.Net beta as standard. I haven't used it though, what reason do I have to think that a beta version of the new VSS will work O.K. when the production version of VSS in the last version of Visual Studio didn't?