Because my shop is a Windows shop (ugh) I have no choice but to develop on Windows. But we've all agreed to do our in-house Windows development using Java and Oracle tools rather than Microsoft tools. So for us, this is a non-event.
Consider the benefits of this approach:
1. We don't have to worry about porting our applications to Vista, because it's Sun's and Oracle's responsibility to make their platforms Vista-compatbile. All we have to do is copy files to a new server. So we can spend our time actually writing code, instead of worrying about porting issues.
2. In the event we DON'T move to Vista, our stuff will work on Linux, or Mac OS/X, or anything else Oracle and Java run on. It's not likely we'll get a mainframe, but if we did, we'd STILL be able to copy our stuff onto it.
3. Our skills have a long shelf-life. New versions of Java tend to ADD capabilities, but the language itself doesn't tend to change in ways that require re-writes. Oracle's the same way, mostly.
Overall, I don't know why anyone still uses Microsoft tools, given the way they like to "churn" their environment. It seems kind of chaotic and random to me. Remember the switch from VB6 to VB.Net, and how people howled about that? Phew...
Garbagemen like to call themselves "sanitary engineers". This does not make them engineers by the official U.S. definition. They are still garbagemen, whether they want to admit it or not.
All official U.S. counts use the official U.S. definition. This was the point I was making. WE count ACTUAL ENGINEERS. China and India count all sorts of other people who are NOT engineers.
Anyway, there is, technically, an engineering discipline called "systems engineering" but it usually applies to factory layout and assembly line design. They can become P.E.s too, and they have the same rigorous guidelines as other engineers, I think. However, just because a person CLAIMS he's a "systems engineer" doesn't mean he IS one! A REAL systems engineer makes beaucoup bucks and is flown all over the world to set up factories for major companies. A PHONY systems engineer reorganizes your supply cabinet to make it easier to catch people stealing post-it notes. See what I mean?
I think most of this sort of trouble started with the "software engineering" hoopla back in the '80's. Programmers wanted to pretend to be "engineers" even though they were clearly NOT. Then everybody else tried to get in on it.
Don't let it get to you. To quote Tyler Durden, "sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken".:)
Some guy has a used bookstore in Kansas City. This bookstore has a small warehouse area for storing used books he's bought but hasn't sold yet.
His bookstore doesn't sell as many books as he would like, and he is taking in more books than he is selling. He wanted to get rid of some of his backlog of books, by taking them to other bookstores and libraries and such, but none of them wanted his books (they probably had their own backlogs and stock to deal with).
He flipped his wig and started throwing them into a huge cauldron, burning them. He announced that people could "adopt" them for a buck apiece, and save them from the fire, in a ghastly "Give me a dollar or the book gets it!" kind of thingy.
Because our culture is relatively horrified by the idea of book burning, seeing as how it is tied directly to certain extremely evil periods in the past, and totalitarianism, and censorship, he came up with a delightfully nutty excuse for his bonfire. Specifically, he said that his bonfire was a protest against illiteracy, amazing when books like Farenheit 451 were about how book-burning were all about FORCED illiteracy.
He made some stock complaints about how estate sales usually had five TV's and three books, blah blah blah, and threw some more books on the fire.
Then the fire department got fed up with the mess and put it out, telling him to knock it off and get a permit next time (of course, when he asks for a permit, they're going to deny it for some logistical reason, so no more book burning for him!).
I think that about wraps it up.
Short version: Ding Bat Goes Bananas Burns Books Annoys Fire Department Gets 15 Minutes of Fame and is Promptly Forgotten.
A recent study ( http://www.issues.org/23.3/wadhwa.html ) done by the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University determined that the number of ACTUAL engineers produced by India, China, and the U.S. were comparable.
The reason the Indian and Chinese numbers are so ridiculously inflated is that they boost their counts by considering everyone who does something even slightly technical, including things like small engine repair, to be an "engineer". Partially this is because of problems in translation -- the article mentions that the word "Engineer" doesn't translate well to Chinese, for example.
In contrast, in the U.S. the title "engineer" is very specific and refers only to a few specializations that require an advanced degree -- in fact, most states require licensing (with very difficult tests) and several years of experience working under a P.E. (Professional Engineer) before a person can technically call himself one. Here we're not discussing "software engineers" but REAL engineers -- i.e. people who work with physical engineering, i.e. mechanical, civil, and electrical engineers.
So relax about THAT at least. We produce just as many ACTUAL engineers as anyone else, even if we don't give them jobs when they graduate.:(
As far as some of the other things you mentioned, well, what you're describing is the general state of civil service itself. The lawyers HAVE taken over, and they DO only respect other lawyers. As most Americans know (or at least suspect) our current federal government is a "great big pile of dumb" (in the words of a guy I used to work with).
Things are better (somewhat) at the state level. Try New York; we've got our heads screwed on straight.
But, see, the thing that makes me suspicious is that he didn't even TRY to beat the election fraud that was obviously going on. He didn't even make an EFFORT to sue and get a recount of Ohio and Florida. He just laid down and gave up. That's unforgivable! It's why we had another Bush presidency.
The only good thing to come out of this is that Bush can never, ever run again (shudder).
True, but he didn't seem like he was throwing the election; he really seemed like he wanted to be president -- BADLY. He just couldn't pull off more than a slim margin, and Bush's supporters tinkered with the final counts to deliver the win. If Gore had been a better candidate, had been a more motivated, animated speaker, maybe he'd have delivered enough of a margin to make stealing the election impossible.
I dunno; in Gore's case I think he really tried, but couldn't pull it off. But in Kerry's case, I don't know how he managed to blow it in so many ways all at once.
But maybe it's been a sham all along. I don't have much faith in our system anymore.
That's how us New Yorkers see Hillary. She suddenly anointed herself a New Yorker, became a senator just like that, and now she's going for president. So she used US as a stepping stone too.
Ah, well. I'm going to vote for the lesser of all the evils, personally. We'll have to see what happens.
I don't think that's true. Blacks only got the vote down South fairly recently (thirty years ago? A little longer?). And the South had to be dragged kicking and screaming into allowing blacks to attend the same schools as white kids. Rascism is still a HUGE problem down there. And regardless of what even moderate whites may say when you put them on the spot, internally many of them are nowhere NEAR ready to vote for a black guy.
If they prove me wrong, I'll be delighted. We'll have to see what happens.
Not quite. I quite accurately stated that the policies Giuliani pursues are fascist, as are the policies of the current government. Fascism usually leads to evil, but calling someone a fascist isn't quite the same as calling him evil; evil is much broader and not particularly useful as an adjective.
Let's review. Fascism is a political approach that pursues:
Corporatism: the close collusion between corporations and the government, to the extent that many government functions are carried out by corporations and corporations hold much power over the way things are run. Google "Halliburton" sometime.
Militarism: the buildup of a military presence with which one can project one's power over those who disagree with you.
Abundance of police power: the use of an overwhelmingly powerful police force to keep the public of your own country in line.
Reduction of personal liberty and elimination of personal freedoms: tied to the use of police force, this is basically constant surveillance and suspicion. NYC under Giulinani put up thousands of cameras watching everything they could; it's very similar to the way things are over in London right now. It's interesting that you mention 1984 and Animal Farm -- Giuliani's cameras are actually a bit more high-tech than Orwell's telescreens. And yes, I have read Animal Farm, more than once. Do not call me a communist.
The very first paragraph reads like a description of the republican party itself! Quite funny, here it is:
(From Wikipedia):
Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement) that considers individual and other societal interests inferior to the needs of the state, and seeks to forge a type of national unity, usually based on ethnic, cultural, or racial attributes. Various scholars attribute different characteristics to fascism, but the following elements are usually seen as its integral parts: nationalism, authoritarianism, militarism, corporatism, collectivism, totalitarianism, anti-communism, and opposition to economic and political liberalism.
Well, I agree with you there, I'd love to see an election shake things up for a change. I just don't think they've got a chance at winning, and I hate to see the Dems throw yet another election to the Republicans.
Do you ever wonder if maybe all this "election" nonsense is just a big punch and judy show they put on for us while the rich select their next president over cocktails at the country club?
Take the last few elections for example.
In 2000, Gore lost, but at least he put up a fight. And he clearly meant what he was saying. He TRIED. I believe this was the first crooked election in the current set. But the republicans outmaneuvered him, and we got Bush in power. In 2002, the republicans had an easy time because they were still riding on Bush's coattails.
In 2004, Kerry started out strong but then started dragging his feet. By the election, he wasn't that charismatic anymore. He didn't even try to fight the Swift Boat scumbags, and he could have nailed Bush to the wall on numerous occasions and didn't. It was like he was just coasting at times. Then, after an election with voting irregularities, Kerry just rolled over and died! He gave up INSTANTLY. He didn't even TRY to force a recount in Florida and Ohio.
Now, his wife is some kind of ketsup millionaire (Heinz) so he's connected to the Good Old Boys' club, right? Why would he give up so quickly? Why would he just roll over like that? This is STRICTLY A MATTER OF MY PERSONAL OPINION/SPECULATION but what if -- WHAT IF -- behind closed doors somebody decided that Bush would be the next president and Kerry went along with it?
In 2006, so much media attention had come upon the election process that nobody could get away with anything and you had a Democratic sweep.
In 2008, if the Democrats take over, there'll likely be some trials, the war on terror will end abruptly, and a lot of the fascist dreams of the republican party will collapse into so much confetti. SO, the Republicans will probably take their chances and try to cook the books again. And the Democrats are looking at two candidates that would be, at best, a long shot... Coincidence?
Just my personal conspiracy theory. Strictly a matter of opinion! But what if...
Don't get me wrong, I like Obama a LOT. If I thought he could win the election, I'd vote for him in a second. But I think most of the U.S. is pretty alarming culturally, for example, check out this museum down in Kentucky:
I'm sorry, but I don't have too much "faith" (ha ha!) in the red states about now. They all look pretty nuts from my perspective. I hope the Dems go with the "safe" guy so Giulinani doesn't get in. One shudders to think of what life would be like under THAT guy...
The fascists in Italy had the trains running on time, too.
The fact remains that he accomplished his goal of cleaning up NYC by being essentially fascist. For example, he threw out all the adult-oriented businesses on 42nd street and brought in Disney and the like (this was the so-called "disneyfication of Manhattan", talked about and argued over in the press).
One of the primary tenets of Fascism is Corporatism, i.e. the support of corporations by the government and the collusion between the two.
He also increased the police presence and armed them to the teeth, another fascist staple. He is a huge fan of increased police power, which I am opposed to utterly. I do not believe the average cop has either the education, intelligence, or wisdom to properly use the power most of them have been given. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" and all that. The cops in NYC are totally out of control, they're no better than the LAPD.
Nah, you keep your fascists, I'm voting for the "nice guy".
I wasn't talking about Edwards' IT policies. I'm primarily interested in the fact that he's against all this "war on terror" bullshit, and Giulinani is NOT. This country, and our personal liberties, are being ruined by the so-called "global war on terror" and somebody needs to take that whole concept out behind the barn and put it down.
As for his health care ideas, I wouldn't worry about them. Even a president doesn't have carte blanche to rewrite the health care system. Bill and Hillary tried, and nothing happened at all.
What will PROBABLY happen if the dems take over is that the health plan that Congress uses will be expanded to all un-covered Americans, as one gigantic super-group. The result of that would be that our health care system would be essentially the same, only a couple hundred Americans would pay into the super-group and cover the much smaller number who fall ill. This would grant you nationalized health care without any of the problems you see in socialist-oriented systems.
You'd just be showing a different health insurance card.
That's cool... But, still, C++ is a superset of C, right? So C's still "in there", kind of, even if the techniques are different (references instead of pointers, etc). I guess the point I was trying to make was that you might say something like "C is dead" but if you don't look really closely, you won't notice that it's all around you and its death was greatly exaggerated.:)
First of all, the democrats can't be stupid enough to actually nominate Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. They have to win over the red states, and they can't do that with a black person OR a woman. If they think beating the republicans and stopping all this fascist bullshit is important, they'll go with the safe candidate, Edwards.
The republicans will go for the candidate that has the highest name recognition, somebody who has an appropriately heroic aura (even if it's mostly bullshit) and somebody they know will continue their nefarious activities. That's Giuliani.
So you vote for the democrat who thinks we should drop all this "war on terror" bullshit, or you vote for the republican stooge who just happened to be in the right place at the right time and will make it all worse. Those are your choices, guys.
Just to give you an idea of what you have to look forward to under Giuliani if he wins, he increased the police presence in NYC to never before seen levels. He also increased surveillance, and was known to crack down mercilessly on protesters and dissidents. He doesn't seem to care particularly about all those pesky "privacy rights" in your constitution, either. He's all about Big Brother. Hell, he probably IS Big Brother.
Edwards, on the other hand, seems friendly and harmless. And he'll probably turn things around and set this country back on course.
I'm a geek; I'm voting for Edwards. What do you think? Am I right or what?
I think they're confused, anyway -- they're writers, not programmers. I bet I can even guess how they did their research: they called up all the recruiters they could find and asked each one to list the languages he/she thought were dead or dying. Then they compared notes on all the responses they got, and built their final list.
I think the list should be called "top 10 languages recruiters don't want to hear about" because that would be more accurate.
Realistically, as far as C goes I think the following factors should be considered before declaring it a dead language:
1. Most of the more popular object oriented languages (Java, C#, C++) use C syntax. C++ is a superset of C.
2. Java can use compiled C modules as an analog to C's old "escape to assembler" technique. In other words, you can call C code from Java when you have something you want to get "close to the metal" on. Thus, a "Java Programmer" may very well ALSO be a C programmer, even if technically that isn't on his resume or job description. I can do this; I imagine most other Java programmers can as well. What's funny is that, once you're calling C code, you can turn around and use the C code to call assembler, Fortran, or whatever else you like! What a weird world this is!
3. Linux is still written in C, I believe. As are its drivers, KDE-related programs, Gnome-related programs, and whatnot.
4. C is the modern version of assembler, isn't it?
ANYway, I don't think C's going anywhere. You might not be able to get PAID for doing it, as your main speciality will probably be something more buzzword-heavy, but you'll probably be doing some of it as a part of whatever other weird and mysterious things you do in the ITU.
Poor journalists... One suspects they're rather easily confused these days.
You're full of shit. I work in state government and we have complete autonomy to build whatever solutions we feel are appropriate. Last year I set up two Oracle application servers for internal agency use, a public website, two large databases, a testing database, and an upgraded software set for all our employees. All I had to get was my boss' permission -- which he gave via email.
The public-facing website, for example, included single sign on, an Oracle Portal, and a complete port of literally hundreds of web pages, forms, and reports from our old website, and a coworker (female) and I got it done in a couple of weeks, WITHOUT consultants.
I know you corporate types just HATE us civil servants, but you're full of shit on this one, pal.
Microsoft will get around to filling out the list when Ballmer's done with his dance classes. He's planning on announcing the patent list during an interperetive dance session at one of their conferences. To be honest, he's still smarting over the whole "monkeyboy" thing, and intends to show everybody that he CAN dance. Bill is, as ever, supportive.
This is because I work in civil service, where we have a 37.5 hour workday, 9 to 5 with a half hour lunch, excellent benefits, plenty of vacation time off, and a living wage. Oh, and it takes an act of congress to fire one of us (pretty close, anyway).
Women are sensible. They want:
* Job security
* A living wage
* Reasonable hours that are compatible with raising a family
* Good benefits
* A nice working environment.
All of these things are available in plenty in civil service. I knew that years ago, and got in on it at first opportunity! Now, look at me: I'm surrounded by pretty women all day, and they're great to work with, too: no ego issues, the developers are all reasonable and sensible...
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Why not donate them to your local Hospice? They care for terminally ill patients, and they're always looking for book donations.
Because my shop is a Windows shop (ugh) I have no choice but to develop on Windows. But we've all agreed to do our in-house Windows development using Java and Oracle tools rather than Microsoft tools. So for us, this is a non-event.
Consider the benefits of this approach:
1. We don't have to worry about porting our applications to Vista, because it's Sun's and Oracle's responsibility to make their platforms Vista-compatbile. All we have to do is copy files to a new server. So we can spend our time actually writing code, instead of worrying about porting issues.
2. In the event we DON'T move to Vista, our stuff will work on Linux, or Mac OS/X, or anything else Oracle and Java run on. It's not likely we'll get a mainframe, but if we did, we'd STILL be able to copy our stuff onto it.
3. Our skills have a long shelf-life. New versions of Java tend to ADD capabilities, but the language itself doesn't tend to change in ways that require re-writes. Oracle's the same way, mostly.
Overall, I don't know why anyone still uses Microsoft tools, given the way they like to "churn" their environment. It seems kind of chaotic and random to me. Remember the switch from VB6 to VB.Net, and how people howled about that? Phew...
Garbagemen like to call themselves "sanitary engineers". This does not make them engineers by the official U.S. definition. They are still garbagemen, whether they want to admit it or not.
:)
All official U.S. counts use the official U.S. definition. This was the point I was making. WE count ACTUAL ENGINEERS. China and India count all sorts of other people who are NOT engineers.
Anyway, there is, technically, an engineering discipline called "systems engineering" but it usually applies to factory layout and assembly line design. They can become P.E.s too, and they have the same rigorous guidelines as other engineers, I think. However, just because a person CLAIMS he's a "systems engineer" doesn't mean he IS one! A REAL systems engineer makes beaucoup bucks and is flown all over the world to set up factories for major companies. A PHONY systems engineer reorganizes your supply cabinet to make it easier to catch people stealing post-it notes. See what I mean?
I think most of this sort of trouble started with the "software engineering" hoopla back in the '80's. Programmers wanted to pretend to be "engineers" even though they were clearly NOT. Then everybody else tried to get in on it.
Don't let it get to you. To quote Tyler Durden, "sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken".
Some guy has a used bookstore in Kansas City. This bookstore has a small warehouse area for storing used books he's bought but hasn't sold yet.
His bookstore doesn't sell as many books as he would like, and he is taking in more books than he is selling. He wanted to get rid of some of his backlog of books, by taking them to other bookstores and libraries and such, but none of them wanted his books (they probably had their own backlogs and stock to deal with).
He flipped his wig and started throwing them into a huge cauldron, burning them. He announced that people could "adopt" them for a buck apiece, and save them from the fire, in a ghastly "Give me a dollar or the book gets it!" kind of thingy.
Because our culture is relatively horrified by the idea of book burning, seeing as how it is tied directly to certain extremely evil periods in the past, and totalitarianism, and censorship, he came up with a delightfully nutty excuse for his bonfire. Specifically, he said that his bonfire was a protest against illiteracy, amazing when books like Farenheit 451 were about how book-burning were all about FORCED illiteracy.
He made some stock complaints about how estate sales usually had five TV's and three books, blah blah blah, and threw some more books on the fire.
Then the fire department got fed up with the mess and put it out, telling him to knock it off and get a permit next time (of course, when he asks for a permit, they're going to deny it for some logistical reason, so no more book burning for him!).
I think that about wraps it up.
Short version: Ding Bat Goes Bananas Burns Books Annoys Fire Department Gets 15 Minutes of Fame and is Promptly Forgotten.
A recent study ( http://www.issues.org/23.3/wadhwa.html ) done by the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University determined that the number of ACTUAL engineers produced by India, China, and the U.S. were comparable.
:(
The reason the Indian and Chinese numbers are so ridiculously inflated is that they boost their counts by considering everyone who does something even slightly technical, including things like small engine repair, to be an "engineer". Partially this is because of problems in translation -- the article mentions that the word "Engineer" doesn't translate well to Chinese, for example.
In contrast, in the U.S. the title "engineer" is very specific and refers only to a few specializations that require an advanced degree -- in fact, most states require licensing (with very difficult tests) and several years of experience working under a P.E. (Professional Engineer) before a person can technically call himself one. Here we're not discussing "software engineers" but REAL engineers -- i.e. people who work with physical engineering, i.e. mechanical, civil, and electrical engineers.
So relax about THAT at least. We produce just as many ACTUAL engineers as anyone else, even if we don't give them jobs when they graduate.
As far as some of the other things you mentioned, well, what you're describing is the general state of civil service itself. The lawyers HAVE taken over, and they DO only respect other lawyers. As most Americans know (or at least suspect) our current federal government is a "great big pile of dumb" (in the words of a guy I used to work with).
Things are better (somewhat) at the state level. Try New York; we've got our heads screwed on straight.
You're thinking of "The Night We Burned Chrome" -- Automatic Jack got the Russian Icebreaker from The Finn. Great story!
But, see, the thing that makes me suspicious is that he didn't even TRY to beat the election fraud that was obviously going on. He didn't even make an EFFORT to sue and get a recount of Ohio and Florida. He just laid down and gave up. That's unforgivable! It's why we had another Bush presidency.
The only good thing to come out of this is that Bush can never, ever run again (shudder).
True, but he didn't seem like he was throwing the election; he really seemed like he wanted to be president -- BADLY. He just couldn't pull off more than a slim margin, and Bush's supporters tinkered with the final counts to deliver the win. If Gore had been a better candidate, had been a more motivated, animated speaker, maybe he'd have delivered enough of a margin to make stealing the election impossible.
I dunno; in Gore's case I think he really tried, but couldn't pull it off. But in Kerry's case, I don't know how he managed to blow it in so many ways all at once.
But maybe it's been a sham all along. I don't have much faith in our system anymore.
That's how us New Yorkers see Hillary. She suddenly anointed herself a New Yorker, became a senator just like that, and now she's going for president. So she used US as a stepping stone too.
Ah, well. I'm going to vote for the lesser of all the evils, personally. We'll have to see what happens.
I don't think that's true. Blacks only got the vote down South fairly recently (thirty years ago? A little longer?). And the South had to be dragged kicking and screaming into allowing blacks to attend the same schools as white kids. Rascism is still a HUGE problem down there. And regardless of what even moderate whites may say when you put them on the spot, internally many of them are nowhere NEAR ready to vote for a black guy.
If they prove me wrong, I'll be delighted. We'll have to see what happens.
Not quite. I quite accurately stated that the policies Giuliani pursues are fascist, as are the policies of the current government. Fascism usually leads to evil, but calling someone a fascist isn't quite the same as calling him evil; evil is much broader and not particularly useful as an adjective.
Let's review. Fascism is a political approach that pursues:
Corporatism: the close collusion between corporations and the government, to the extent that many government functions are carried out by corporations and corporations hold much power over the way things are run. Google "Halliburton" sometime.
Militarism: the buildup of a military presence with which one can project one's power over those who disagree with you.
Abundance of police power: the use of an overwhelmingly powerful police force to keep the public of your own country in line.
Reduction of personal liberty and elimination of personal freedoms: tied to the use of police force, this is basically constant surveillance and suspicion. NYC under Giulinani put up thousands of cameras watching everything they could; it's very similar to the way things are over in London right now. It's interesting that you mention 1984 and Animal Farm -- Giuliani's cameras are actually a bit more high-tech than Orwell's telescreens. And yes, I have read Animal Farm, more than once. Do not call me a communist.
I could go on and on, but time is of the essence! Here's a nice Wikipedia article for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism
The very first paragraph reads like a description of the republican party itself! Quite funny, here it is:
(From Wikipedia):
Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement) that considers individual and other societal interests inferior to the needs of the state, and seeks to forge a type of national unity, usually based on ethnic, cultural, or racial attributes. Various scholars attribute different characteristics to fascism, but the following elements are usually seen as its integral parts: nationalism, authoritarianism, militarism, corporatism, collectivism, totalitarianism, anti-communism, and opposition to economic and political liberalism.
Sad that you don't understand this.
Tsk, no sense of humor. You should see a doctor about that, I hear they're implantable now.
Well, I agree with you there, I'd love to see an election shake things up for a change. I just don't think they've got a chance at winning, and I hate to see the Dems throw yet another election to the Republicans.
Do you ever wonder if maybe all this "election" nonsense is just a big punch and judy show they put on for us while the rich select their next president over cocktails at the country club?
Take the last few elections for example.
In 2000, Gore lost, but at least he put up a fight. And he clearly meant what he was saying. He TRIED. I believe this was the first crooked election in the current set. But the republicans outmaneuvered him, and we got Bush in power. In 2002, the republicans had an easy time because they were still riding on Bush's coattails.
In 2004, Kerry started out strong but then started dragging his feet. By the election, he wasn't that charismatic anymore. He didn't even try to fight the Swift Boat scumbags, and he could have nailed Bush to the wall on numerous occasions and didn't. It was like he was just coasting at times. Then, after an election with voting irregularities, Kerry just rolled over and died! He gave up INSTANTLY. He didn't even TRY to force a recount in Florida and Ohio.
Now, his wife is some kind of ketsup millionaire (Heinz) so he's connected to the Good Old Boys' club, right? Why would he give up so quickly? Why would he just roll over like that? This is STRICTLY A MATTER OF MY PERSONAL OPINION/SPECULATION but what if -- WHAT IF -- behind closed doors somebody decided that Bush would be the next president and Kerry went along with it?
In 2006, so much media attention had come upon the election process that nobody could get away with anything and you had a Democratic sweep.
In 2008, if the Democrats take over, there'll likely be some trials, the war on terror will end abruptly, and a lot of the fascist dreams of the republican party will collapse into so much confetti. SO, the Republicans will probably take their chances and try to cook the books again. And the Democrats are looking at two candidates that would be, at best, a long shot... Coincidence?
Just my personal conspiracy theory. Strictly a matter of opinion! But what if...
I invoke Godwin's law and magically KILL your thread.
BTW, you're as nutty as a ten pound Christmas fruitcake.
Don't get me wrong, I like Obama a LOT. If I thought he could win the election, I'd vote for him in a second. But I think most of the U.S. is pretty alarming culturally, for example, check out this museum down in Kentucky:
l ?em&ex=1180152000&en=3fce574910e89398&ei=5087%0A
7 28-Kentucky_museum-0
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/24/arts/24crea.htm
http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/18-05-2007/91
I'm sorry, but I don't have too much "faith" (ha ha!) in the red states about now. They all look pretty nuts from my perspective. I hope the Dems go with the "safe" guy so Giulinani doesn't get in. One shudders to think of what life would be like under THAT guy...
The fascists in Italy had the trains running on time, too.
The fact remains that he accomplished his goal of cleaning up NYC by being essentially fascist. For example, he threw out all the adult-oriented businesses on 42nd street and brought in Disney and the like (this was the so-called "disneyfication of Manhattan", talked about and argued over in the press).
One of the primary tenets of Fascism is Corporatism, i.e. the support of corporations by the government and the collusion between the two.
He also increased the police presence and armed them to the teeth, another fascist staple. He is a huge fan of increased police power, which I am opposed to utterly. I do not believe the average cop has either the education, intelligence, or wisdom to properly use the power most of them have been given. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" and all that. The cops in NYC are totally out of control, they're no better than the LAPD.
Nah, you keep your fascists, I'm voting for the "nice guy".
DAMN TYPOS!
s/couple hundred/couple hundred million/g
I wasn't talking about Edwards' IT policies. I'm primarily interested in the fact that he's against all this "war on terror" bullshit, and Giulinani is NOT. This country, and our personal liberties, are being ruined by the so-called "global war on terror" and somebody needs to take that whole concept out behind the barn and put it down.
As for his health care ideas, I wouldn't worry about them. Even a president doesn't have carte blanche to rewrite the health care system. Bill and Hillary tried, and nothing happened at all.
What will PROBABLY happen if the dems take over is that the health plan that Congress uses will be expanded to all un-covered Americans, as one gigantic super-group. The result of that would be that our health care system would be essentially the same, only a couple hundred Americans would pay into the super-group and cover the much smaller number who fall ill. This would grant you nationalized health care without any of the problems you see in socialist-oriented systems.
You'd just be showing a different health insurance card.
That's cool... But, still, C++ is a superset of C, right? So C's still "in there", kind of, even if the techniques are different (references instead of pointers, etc). I guess the point I was trying to make was that you might say something like "C is dead" but if you don't look really closely, you won't notice that it's all around you and its death was greatly exaggerated. :)
John Edwards Vs. Rudy Guiliani.
First of all, the democrats can't be stupid enough to actually nominate Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. They have to win over the red states, and they can't do that with a black person OR a woman. If they think beating the republicans and stopping all this fascist bullshit is important, they'll go with the safe candidate, Edwards.
The republicans will go for the candidate that has the highest name recognition, somebody who has an appropriately heroic aura (even if it's mostly bullshit) and somebody they know will continue their nefarious activities. That's Giuliani.
So you vote for the democrat who thinks we should drop all this "war on terror" bullshit, or you vote for the republican stooge who just happened to be in the right place at the right time and will make it all worse. Those are your choices, guys.
Just to give you an idea of what you have to look forward to under Giuliani if he wins, he increased the police presence in NYC to never before seen levels. He also increased surveillance, and was known to crack down mercilessly on protesters and dissidents. He doesn't seem to care particularly about all those pesky "privacy rights" in your constitution, either. He's all about Big Brother. Hell, he probably IS Big Brother.
Edwards, on the other hand, seems friendly and harmless. And he'll probably turn things around and set this country back on course.
I'm a geek; I'm voting for Edwards. What do you think? Am I right or what?
I think they're confused, anyway -- they're writers, not programmers. I bet I can even guess how they did their research: they called up all the recruiters they could find and asked each one to list the languages he/she thought were dead or dying. Then they compared notes on all the responses they got, and built their final list.
. 09/CallingCCodefromJava/index.htmlr amming/JDCBook/jniexamp.html
I think the list should be called "top 10 languages recruiters don't want to hear about" because that would be more accurate.
Realistically, as far as C goes I think the following factors should be considered before declaring it a dead language:
1. Most of the more popular object oriented languages (Java, C#, C++) use C syntax. C++ is a superset of C.
2. Java can use compiled C modules as an analog to C's old "escape to assembler" technique. In other words, you can call C code from Java when you have something you want to get "close to the metal" on. Thus, a "Java Programmer" may very well ALSO be a C programmer, even if technically that isn't on his resume or job description. I can do this; I imagine most other Java programmers can as well. What's funny is that, once you're calling C code, you can turn around and use the C code to call assembler, Fortran, or whatever else you like! What a weird world this is!
(Links for the skeptical):
http://www.csharp.com/javacfort.html (Ironic that it's on a CSharp site, no?)
http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.13/13
http://java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/Prog
3. Linux is still written in C, I believe. As are its drivers, KDE-related programs, Gnome-related programs, and whatnot.
4. C is the modern version of assembler, isn't it?
ANYway, I don't think C's going anywhere. You might not be able to get PAID for doing it, as your main speciality will probably be something more buzzword-heavy, but you'll probably be doing some of it as a part of whatever other weird and mysterious things you do in the ITU.
Poor journalists... One suspects they're rather easily confused these days.
s/workday/workweek/g
You're full of shit. I work in state government and we have complete autonomy to build whatever solutions we feel are appropriate. Last year I set up two Oracle application servers for internal agency use, a public website, two large databases, a testing database, and an upgraded software set for all our employees. All I had to get was my boss' permission -- which he gave via email.
The public-facing website, for example, included single sign on, an Oracle Portal, and a complete port of literally hundreds of web pages, forms, and reports from our old website, and a coworker (female) and I got it done in a couple of weeks, WITHOUT consultants.
I know you corporate types just HATE us civil servants, but you're full of shit on this one, pal.
No, no, no...
Microsoft will get around to filling out the list when Ballmer's done with his dance classes. He's planning on announcing the patent list during an interperetive dance session at one of their conferences. To be honest, he's still smarting over the whole "monkeyboy" thing, and intends to show everybody that he CAN dance. Bill is, as ever, supportive.
It's about priorities, people!
This is because I work in civil service, where we have a 37.5 hour workday, 9 to 5 with a half hour lunch, excellent benefits, plenty of vacation time off, and a living wage. Oh, and it takes an act of congress to fire one of us (pretty close, anyway).
Women are sensible. They want:
* Job security
* A living wage
* Reasonable hours that are compatible with raising a family
* Good benefits
* A nice working environment.
All of these things are available in plenty in civil service. I knew that years ago, and got in on it at first opportunity! Now, look at me: I'm surrounded by pretty women all day, and they're great to work with, too: no ego issues, the developers are all reasonable and sensible...
It's nerdvana!
Seriously. It's the truth.