Are we all talking about the same Dune here? The incredibly long, rambling, dreary bit of SF that Frank Herbert wrote and won too many awards for?
To be fair, it wasn't an awful book or anything, it just wasn't truly great. Much better SF has been written, and at least one of those stories was turned into a really good movie. (A Boy and his Dog - Harlan Ellison)
No one would deny that a fetus is living material. What all legal arguments have been over is whether or not it is a human being. Different issues, that have no bearing or relevance in a discussion of the possible existence microbes on Mars.
Wow, this could be a second post! I'm so thrilled!!!! (HAH!)
Seriously, make sure you can get a visa first. It's not that easy for someone who isn't an EU member, and Americans applying for jobs tend to be viewed with serious suspicion by governments.
Also, you should bone up on your french _now_, not once you get over there. I wouldn't bother hiring anyone who couldn't speak the local language at least passably. (mind you, that means I've had some colleagues in the past who I wouldn't hire:-)
No idea of the job market over there, other than that the UK is booming like it hasn't in 30 years.
"Had Bill Gates been born six hundred years ago, he'd be assistant shit-shoveler for the Duke of Silesia."
Nah, I don't think so. Bill Gates' biggest trait is his weasel-like opportunism. Anytime, anyplace, any occupation, he would claw his way to the top on the backs of others.
Come to think of it, he's kind of like Blackadder, but without the personality or wit.
Well, I deserved that to some extent. Of course,
I could turn around and point out that in your kind, gentle, emotionally controlled manner you're being quite condescending. Not to mention wearing your heart on your sleeve with the suicide comment. As much as mastery over one's emotions is part of maturing, so is a certain amount of reserve. Approaching strangers with your personal problems (or triumphs, for that matter) is...tacky in my mind. Judging other people based on one post is also fairly shortsighted--my physical and mental health are very good in fact! The blinders people often wear just annoy me sometimes.
As for the HP-UX/AIX ==> Guru, that's not quite what I intended, although I see how it came across as that. What I meant was that (any single platform) =X=> Guru, and also that it's pointless (and socially harmful) to be a zealot when you only know one thing.
As for considering myself a guru, all I can say is HAH! I might achieve that status in my own mind the day I die, but not before. In the meantime, I'll keep working on it.:-)
What I meant by my 'moderator' bit was that I had just moderated someone else's comment in this topic, and by posting, I was undoing the moderation I'd done. I felt bad about that, because the post I'd moderated was quite thoughtful.
My karma? *shrug* It keeps going up and then leaking, hovering somewhere around 50. As long as I have the +1 bonus to use when appropriate, I don't give a rats ass. I've got better ways to measure my self worth.
Re:SICK OF IT! Giving up moderator points to say i
on
BSD to Leapfrog Linux?
·
· Score: 1
I don't know about H-PUX (the alternate pronunciation); I quite like it. SAM is pretty good if you like administering with GUIs (and it's optional!), and most of the system is fairly straightforward SysV.
AIX is a contraction, of course, for A(in't Un)IX.
The ODM drives me crazy--very much like the Registry in a certain other OS.
Slowaris got its name when it first was put forth as a replacement for SunOS, which was (and still is) MUCH faster on the low end machines. Solaris is more efficient at what it does, but has a higher overhead.
Oops! I stand corrected. I'm used to seeing UnixWare in corporate environments (where it's fairly pricy to say the least!), and haven't looked at running it at home for a while.
Sorry about you losing a moderation point. I had given it to you, and then had to speak out myself.
C.
SICK OF IT! Giving up moderator points to say it..
on
BSD to Leapfrog Linux?
·
· Score: 4
OK, I'm about to find out if the points I've already given out in a thread get trashed now that I'm posting in it. (Note: If they do, then I apologise to the only person who's said anything
worthwhile so far on this article.) I just can't ignore this stupidity any longer.
Here's what I hear most of the time on/.:
"I am a unix guru. I work with Linux linux linux linux linux linux linux (solaris) linux and linux.
I tried to install BSD once, but it didn't work so it sucks. I know, because I am a unix guru."
Most of you haven't even touched Unix as a field--you've played with different distros of a _single_ variant of Unix (which very pedantically isn't even Unix at all), which is about as significant as playing with the different versions of Win95. THERE'S A WHOLE SHITLOAD MORE OUT THERE, and almost NONE of you posters have even seen it, let alone know enough to comment intelligently about it.
Anyone played with HP-UX? How about AIX (eek!)?
Tru64 is kinda different too. Then there's SCO Unix (if you can afford it), IRIX, and so on.
It comes down to this: I'm sick of evangelists who Know the One True Path to Enlightenment, and feel that sullying themselves with broader knowledge (not to mention history) would be Blasphemy. Or maybe they're just scared to find out that Linux (or BSD, or even Solaris or ANY single OS) isn't the perfect, magic, foolproof solution to everything.
Naturally, there _are_ true Unix professionals on/., and they know (at least the good ones do) where the different systems shine. If you're nodding along with this, you know what I mean. If you're going, "but I'm not like that--he's an asshole!" then you're quite possibly _exactly_ who I'm talking about.
A car company build a car, using many patented
parts and copyrighted designs in the process.
If we applied the DMCA philosophy to a car, then
wrenches would be illegal, since you could use
them to take apart and copy those patented items.
YOU COULD NOT BUY A WRENCH, even though all you
wanted it for was to change your oil! THAT is how
the DMCA works!
There's no rational reason for a tradeoff between
stability and usability. Win9x definitely has the
best overall consumer usability out there, but
that's not a reason for it being unstable.
Bad coding and the manner in which the third party
drivers are imbedded into the kernel is what makes
Win* unstable.
As for Linux, well it's definitely a teenager of
an OS. I've been using (fighting with) Solaris
since 2.2, SunOS before that, and various others.
They have their problems, but they're at least
mature OSes, which Linux just ain't. I'm worried
that its immaturity is due to the immaturity of
its coders (no offense, but most of them just
haven't been around enough to see what else is
out there), and won't get any better.
Still, it makes a damned fine router/packet
filter.
Netscape is dead. Mozilla is a non-starting disaster. Opera never got off the ground. There
are no browsers still being actively developed other than IE which are worth the download. None.
Don't get me wrong--at home I use Netscape 4.7x,
and wouldn't give it up for anything. I HATE supporting Microsoft, but since Netscape made the jump to mozilla, the browser market narrowed to one option, and only one.
"Turner and his ilk are well aware of how many people vote for Democrats out of fear that Republicans will implement a fundamentalist Christian agenda, rather than because of actual agreement with Democratic economic policies."
(shakes my head)
"These Americans are crazy!"
(With thanks to Obelisk)
I told a new admin-in-training to go get this book. The first thing he did (smart man!) was figure out if he could expense it. The first thing he did after buying it (even smarter!), was decide not to expense it, because it was going to be the core of his personal admin library.
The O'Reilly book is quite good indeed. This is even better. More importantly, though, it's different--it goes at things from a different angle, and one may present it in a way that you 'get' better than the other.
Flame away, but I've never been impressed with
Phillip Greenspun. From Travels with Samantha to
this latest misuse/understanding of Brooks'
excellent book, he's had a knack for missing the
important points and not letting us know how
great he is. (even when he's humble, he's always
got something to be humble about, and mentions it)
For starters: The 10/1 productivity ratio wasn't
a "good/average programmer" stat--it was a "very
best/very worst" stat. Furthermore, although the
book was reprinted in 1995, that figure comes
from the original, published in 1975, from a
study carried out before that. Nearly 30 years
ago, in other words! Somehow that number jumps to
100 times in the article, but I'll chalk that up
to another typo.
The 70-hour idea is silly. It doesn't address
the _accuracy_ of the work done, and the fact
that it goes down after a while. Check out this
article:
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff. html
Also, FORCING (i.e. "encouraging") people to work
hours like that is just going to get you a bunch
of uber-nerds who will generate tons of brilliant
code that pisses off end users, because they
never talk to or deal with end users, or life for
that matter.
"Your business success will depend on the extent
to which programmers essentially live at your
office." Makes it perfectly clear who I DON'T
want to work for!!! Furthermore, he then goes on
to say, "Programmers don't have the same need for
wood-paneled expensive plushness that, say,
corporate lawyers or investment bankers might."
My question is why the hell not? As much as the
lawyers and investment bankers have a "need" for
these things, so do I!
All in all, the article didn't end up saying
much. Some people are better than others at their
jobs, and most of the bad ones don't realise it.
Big fat deal! The best programmers tend to get
pushed into management. Well, guess what? It
happens in almost every field, and is just as bad
there as it is in software engineering.
No surprise there--they haven't written an unbiased article in years. I'm just amazed that they still have _any_ elasticity left in their anal sphincter.
Slashdot Mirror
Are we all talking about the same Dune here? The incredibly long, rambling, dreary bit of SF that Frank Herbert wrote and won too many awards for?
To be fair, it wasn't an awful book or anything, it just wasn't truly great. Much better SF has been written, and at least one of those stories was turned into a really good movie. (A Boy and his Dog - Harlan Ellison)
*shrug* I just don't see what the fuss is about.
How do you think the Europeans discovered North
America?
Well, except that I'm not sure anyone could get
to the moon anymore. We'd have to recreate the
technology from scratch, sadly enough.
Flame bait or a troll, one way or another.
No one would deny that a fetus is living material. What all legal arguments have been over is whether or not it is a human being. Different issues, that have no bearing or relevance in a discussion of the possible existence microbes on Mars.
Wow, this could be a second post! I'm so thrilled!!!! (HAH!)
:-)
Seriously, make sure you can get a visa first. It's not that easy for someone who isn't an EU member, and Americans applying for jobs tend to be viewed with serious suspicion by governments.
Also, you should bone up on your french _now_, not once you get over there. I wouldn't bother hiring anyone who couldn't speak the local language at least passably. (mind you, that means I've had some colleagues in the past who I wouldn't hire
No idea of the job market over there, other than that the UK is booming like it hasn't in 30 years.
"Had Bill Gates been born six hundred years ago, he'd be assistant shit-shoveler for the Duke of Silesia."
Nah, I don't think so. Bill Gates' biggest trait is his weasel-like opportunism. Anytime, anyplace, any occupation, he would claw his way to the top on the backs of others.
Come to think of it, he's kind of like Blackadder, but without the personality or wit.
Well, I deserved that to some extent. Of course,
:-)
I could turn around and point out that in your kind, gentle, emotionally controlled manner you're being quite condescending. Not to mention wearing your heart on your sleeve with the suicide comment. As much as mastery over one's emotions is part of maturing, so is a certain amount of reserve. Approaching strangers with your personal problems (or triumphs, for that matter) is...tacky in my mind. Judging other people based on one post is also fairly shortsighted--my physical and mental health are very good in fact! The blinders people often wear just annoy me sometimes.
As for the HP-UX/AIX ==> Guru, that's not quite what I intended, although I see how it came across as that. What I meant was that (any single platform) =X=> Guru, and also that it's pointless (and socially harmful) to be a zealot when you only know one thing.
As for considering myself a guru, all I can say is HAH! I might achieve that status in my own mind the day I die, but not before. In the meantime, I'll keep working on it.
As the instigator of this thread...
What I meant by my 'moderator' bit was that I had just moderated someone else's comment in this topic, and by posting, I was undoing the moderation I'd done. I felt bad about that, because the post I'd moderated was quite thoughtful.
My karma? *shrug* It keeps going up and then leaking, hovering somewhere around 50. As long as I have the +1 bonus to use when appropriate, I don't give a rats ass. I've got better ways to measure my self worth.
I don't know about H-PUX (the alternate pronunciation); I quite like it. SAM is pretty good if you like administering with GUIs (and it's optional!), and most of the system is fairly straightforward SysV.
AIX is a contraction, of course, for A(in't Un)IX.
The ODM drives me crazy--very much like the Registry in a certain other OS.
Slowaris got its name when it first was put forth as a replacement for SunOS, which was (and still is) MUCH faster on the low end machines. Solaris is more efficient at what it does, but has a higher overhead.
So says I, but what do I know?
Oops! I stand corrected. I'm used to seeing UnixWare in corporate environments (where it's fairly pricy to say the least!), and haven't looked at running it at home for a while.
Good to know. Thanks!
Sorry about you losing a moderation point. I had given it to you, and then had to speak out myself.
C.
OK, I'm about to find out if the points I've already given out in a thread get trashed now that I'm posting in it. (Note: If they do, then I apologise to the only person who's said anything
/.:
/., and they know (at least the good ones do) where the different systems shine. If you're nodding along with this, you know what I mean. If you're going, "but I'm not like that--he's an asshole!" then you're quite possibly _exactly_ who I'm talking about.
worthwhile so far on this article.) I just can't ignore this stupidity any longer.
Here's what I hear most of the time on
"I am a unix guru. I work with Linux linux linux linux linux linux linux (solaris) linux and linux.
I tried to install BSD once, but it didn't work so it sucks. I know, because I am a unix guru."
Most of you haven't even touched Unix as a field--you've played with different distros of a _single_ variant of Unix (which very pedantically isn't even Unix at all), which is about as significant as playing with the different versions of Win95. THERE'S A WHOLE SHITLOAD MORE OUT THERE, and almost NONE of you posters have even seen it, let alone know enough to comment intelligently about it.
Anyone played with HP-UX? How about AIX (eek!)?
Tru64 is kinda different too. Then there's SCO Unix (if you can afford it), IRIX, and so on.
It comes down to this: I'm sick of evangelists who Know the One True Path to Enlightenment, and feel that sullying themselves with broader knowledge (not to mention history) would be Blasphemy. Or maybe they're just scared to find out that Linux (or BSD, or even Solaris or ANY single OS) isn't the perfect, magic, foolproof solution to everything.
Naturally, there _are_ true Unix professionals on
I say we look at wrenches.
A car company build a car, using many patented
parts and copyrighted designs in the process.
If we applied the DMCA philosophy to a car, then
wrenches would be illegal, since you could use
them to take apart and copy those patented items.
YOU COULD NOT BUY A WRENCH, even though all you
wanted it for was to change your oil! THAT is how
the DMCA works!
Agreed. BUT...
There's no rational reason for a tradeoff between
stability and usability. Win9x definitely has the
best overall consumer usability out there, but
that's not a reason for it being unstable.
Bad coding and the manner in which the third party
drivers are imbedded into the kernel is what makes
Win* unstable.
As for Linux, well it's definitely a teenager of
an OS. I've been using (fighting with) Solaris
since 2.2, SunOS before that, and various others.
They have their problems, but they're at least
mature OSes, which Linux just ain't. I'm worried
that its immaturity is due to the immaturity of
its coders (no offense, but most of them just
haven't been around enough to see what else is
out there), and won't get any better.
Still, it makes a damned fine router/packet
filter.
The BBC has even newer news here. Also, they're a bit more cognisant of the english language than the Times. (i.e. tabloid trash)
You remember Alice...
This is a song about Alice!
(A. Guthrie)
I cringe at what I'm about to say, but...
MS has utterly won the browser wars.
Netscape is dead. Mozilla is a non-starting disaster. Opera never got off the ground. There
are no browsers still being actively developed other than IE which are worth the download. None.
Don't get me wrong--at home I use Netscape 4.7x,
and wouldn't give it up for anything. I HATE supporting Microsoft, but since Netscape made the jump to mozilla, the browser market narrowed to one option, and only one.
Too bad, but that's the way it is.
"Turner and his ilk are well aware of how many people vote for Democrats out of fear that Republicans will implement a fundamentalist Christian agenda, rather than because of actual agreement with Democratic economic policies." (shakes my head) "These Americans are crazy!" (With thanks to Obelisk)
I told a new admin-in-training to go get this book. The first thing he did (smart man!) was figure out if he could expense it. The first thing he did after buying it (even smarter!), was decide not to expense it, because it was going to be the core of his personal admin library.
The O'Reilly book is quite good indeed. This is even better. More importantly, though, it's different--it goes at things from a different angle, and one may present it in a way that you 'get' better than the other.
Flame away, but I've never been impressed with
. html
Phillip Greenspun. From Travels with Samantha to
this latest misuse/understanding of Brooks'
excellent book, he's had a knack for missing the
important points and not letting us know how
great he is. (even when he's humble, he's always
got something to be humble about, and mentions it)
For starters: The 10/1 productivity ratio wasn't
a "good/average programmer" stat--it was a "very
best/very worst" stat. Furthermore, although the
book was reprinted in 1995, that figure comes
from the original, published in 1975, from a
study carried out before that. Nearly 30 years
ago, in other words! Somehow that number jumps to
100 times in the article, but I'll chalk that up
to another typo.
The 70-hour idea is silly. It doesn't address
the _accuracy_ of the work done, and the fact
that it goes down after a while. Check out this
article:
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff
Also, FORCING (i.e. "encouraging") people to work
hours like that is just going to get you a bunch
of uber-nerds who will generate tons of brilliant
code that pisses off end users, because they
never talk to or deal with end users, or life for
that matter.
"Your business success will depend on the extent
to which programmers essentially live at your
office." Makes it perfectly clear who I DON'T
want to work for!!! Furthermore, he then goes on
to say, "Programmers don't have the same need for
wood-paneled expensive plushness that, say,
corporate lawyers or investment bankers might."
My question is why the hell not? As much as the
lawyers and investment bankers have a "need" for
these things, so do I!
All in all, the article didn't end up saying
much. Some people are better than others at their
jobs, and most of the bad ones don't realise it.
Big fat deal! The best programmers tend to get
pushed into management. Well, guess what? It
happens in almost every field, and is just as bad
there as it is in software engineering.
No surprise there--they haven't written an unbiased article in years. I'm just amazed that they still have _any_ elasticity left in their anal sphincter.
Hmmm.
500-1 odds that a 32 bit clock will be good enough. I'm comfortable enough with that to cut back the 64-bit conversion budget.
Now THAT was funny!!!
/. today. I Am Pleased.
There's some good wit on
P.S. Thanks for the Cargo Cult reference. It made my day!
:-)