Not unlimited, but I pay ~$33/month for service on two phones. Can't imagine using enough minutes/texts/data to actually make it up to unlimited plan prices.
This sort of lapse has happened in every company I've worked in, big and small, when the person formerly responsible for this kind of thing leaves the company and someone else has to pick up their responsibilities. Sloppy, unorganized? You betcha. Also what I've come to expect.
I don't understand why we're still making kneepads. Kneepads are completely ineffective at protecting knees from hypersonic missiles, but spending on kneepads continues to rise. Kneepads are obsolete and we should be focusing our efforts on knee-mounted lasers to defend against this new hypersonic threat.
Holy balls that is creepy. At best, this would really weird people out who knew the dearly departed. At worst, it would provide a hook for traumatized loved ones to avoid dealing with the grief and get increasingly bottled up in a fantasy world.
It is difficult for me to imagine ways in which this would be a good thing.
"England says his ideas pose no threat to Darwinian evolution."
Really? This had to be stated?
* Why would this have anything to do with Darwin's theory of evolution? Evolutionary theory is pointedly silent on the origins of life, nor does it depend on a thermodynamic explanation of speciation. * Why would the article, or England for that matter, feel the need to explicitly state this?
[opinion] I feel like the scientific community has so rabid about avoiding anything resembling creationism that they have to reassure themselves when new ideas come up, even if the ideas are no threat to their core beliefs. [/opinion]
It's disappointing and makes it hard to take anything this guy says seriously, regardless of how reasonable or far fetched his formula is.
Agreed. I'm sure internally, Valve deals with the same circus of foibles that every other tech company sees. But externally, looking at their overarching business strategy, it's really satisfying to see them playing the long game, and knowing that in all probability the PC gaming market will continue to benefit from their efforts.
"...but said the opinions of her former employer would not guide her work."
I wonder if she rolled her eyes and winked after saying this.
This is one of those situations where I think the chosen person could actually do an enormous amount of good if they had the will to, but I have little to no hope that that will be the actual outcome.
>I don't have to hold my tongue when someone is wrong
I respectfully disagree. You should definitely speak up if something is wrong, and it's good that you're in an environment that allows you to. That being said, I suspect that the number one "communication problem" software developers tend to have is coming across as having an overactive ego, that your word is the divine truth handed down to the unwashed tech-illiterate masses, and that their opinions don't actually matter in the face of the cold, hard facts you bring to the table. I don't think this is the dev's actual attitude (most of the time), but it's so, so easy to come across that way. Coming up with ways to share an idea while making sure your audience understands yet doesn't feel talked down to is a skill I know a lot of devs could stand to learn. If your coworkers feel respected by you, that goes a long way toward improving communications.
The other problem I see frequently is a general lack of visibility into what progress is actually being made on the seething morass of shifting dev priorities. Even something as simple as a daily/weekly project status update e-mail to the right people can do wonders here.
(This question gets deep into greater issues of how much power tech people have and their perceived role in businesses and society, which is far too big a discussion to be had here. Short version: IT experts are witches).
Full disclosure: I am a career software developer, and like to believe I do pretty good at the communicating with business thing.
I think the top of Spain is pretty flat. You could probably land there if you can get nestled under that French overhang.
Other than that, though, yeah, that's way too prickly. The next closest viable landing spot is over on that Brazilian ledge, and even then you'd need to make sure you get a firm perch so you don't slip off and fall to the Antarctic floor below.
Not that many customers are going to be scared off. Most people don't care about the NSA reading their data. Businesses care about competitors reading their data, not the NSA.
This, sadly. I wish the general public could be bothered with this, and I also wish we could point to one particular distraction as the culprit, like Jersey Shore or the fact that we haven't been able to run a planned government budget since 1997, but the NSA issue is a particularly bad symptom of a larger problem.
Second this. There are numerous languages out there that are tailor-made for specific kinds of problems. You didn't quite share enough to narrow down what kinds problems you need to solve, but the R project is geared toward number crunching, albeit with a significant bent toward statistics and graphic display.
If that's not pointed in the right direction, some other language might be. Alternatively, there are a lot of libraries out there for the more popular languages that could help with what you're doing. Heck, 12 years ago we didn't even have the boost libraries for C++. It's difficult for me to imagine using that language with out them now.
The summary eludes to it, but the articles I've read so far on it fail to mention that the landing happened *when it was dark out*. I haven't seen a specific time of landing yet, but it's looking like it was well after sunset, which is why the note about not having lights on is so noteworthy.
Untrained landings under pressure are heroic feats as it is. Doing so as it's getting progressively darker outside turns it up to 11.
Let's imagine your mother has received a PDF document in her email, and she has to add it to the repo. Would you really make her use git? Just making her email the file to you isn't a good solution in this case.
I would not make her use command line git, but I would make her use one of the many GUI clients available for git. If she can be trained to use whatever you're using now, she can be trained to use one of these.
I would be nice to her and spend some time hanging out with her after the training, of course. She's my mom. I would also expect her to need repeated training, but I would expect that of anyone who is not tech savvy.
Nope. I agree that my wording for defining the event was poorly chosen, but I hold that it made sense. Read it again. If you don't have a good statistics textbook, for some help on sample group vs population, here's a good place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(statistics) .
Remember, a working knowledge of statistics is useful and fun!
For those of you who know something about statistics, consider this math problem:
A sample group of 24,000 students who think they have what it takes to go to a university take the entrance exam. Out of those 24,000, none of them pass the exam.
Let event A be a randomly selected student from this population passing the exam. Find the maximum value of P(A) that would keep the results of the sample group above within a 95% confidence interval.
Then, once you've done that, think long and hard about the reasons why nobody passed the test.
Regarding the edit: I don't really think removing the change.gov content was a move to avoid disclosing policy on whistleblowers. You can find discussion about whistleblower protections in even greater detail on whitehouse.gov. Example: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/image/ppd-19.pdf . Came up after a simple search for "whistleblowers".
I didn't read every last word of the PDF, so I can't certify whether it follows the spirit of the original paragraph on change.gov. It seems to limit protected whistleblowing to information shared up the chain of command instead of with the public. Makes me wonder if they know what the word "whistleblower" means. Still, it's certainly more official than a campaign promise, and it's readily available.
In the international waters off the coast of Nigeria today, the scourge of modern technology struck again, as the malevolent tendrils of the EOMA-68 entity claimed another civilian freighter. Witnesses claimed they could hear the eerie sounds of Vivaldi's Four Seasons emanating from the amorphous ropes of wires and circuitry. Within hours, the ship's hull was cannibalized and added to EOMA-68's writhing mass. Officials are demanding a unilateral military response from the UN and neighboring allies.
Seriously, "Boards Ship" was not the best turn of phrase to use there. I got a kick out of it, though.
My initial reaction to the summary: Okay, I know a lot of us in Slashdot crowd are gullible, but seriously? I demand a plausible lie.
Reaction after reading the article: I suspect that the translation from an actual technical explanation to language intended for the layman was shaky at best. I don't think I've read an adequate explanation of how it actually works.
Slashdot Mirror
Not unlimited, but I pay ~$33/month for service on two phones. Can't imagine using enough minutes/texts/data to actually make it up to unlimited plan prices.
This sort of lapse has happened in every company I've worked in, big and small, when the person formerly responsible for this kind of thing leaves the company and someone else has to pick up their responsibilities. Sloppy, unorganized? You betcha. Also what I've come to expect.
I don't understand why we're still making kneepads. Kneepads are completely ineffective at protecting knees from hypersonic missiles, but spending on kneepads continues to rise. Kneepads are obsolete and we should be focusing our efforts on knee-mounted lasers to defend against this new hypersonic threat.
Holy balls that is creepy. At best, this would really weird people out who knew the dearly departed. At worst, it would provide a hook for traumatized loved ones to avoid dealing with the grief and get increasingly bottled up in a fantasy world.
It is difficult for me to imagine ways in which this would be a good thing.
It's safe to assume that slashdotters didn't actually read the article, doubly so if it's behind the paywall. We're spouting opinions we already had.
"England says his ideas pose no threat to Darwinian evolution."
Really? This had to be stated?
* Why would this have anything to do with Darwin's theory of evolution? Evolutionary theory is pointedly silent on the origins of life, nor does it depend on a thermodynamic explanation of speciation.
* Why would the article, or England for that matter, feel the need to explicitly state this?
[opinion] I feel like the scientific community has so rabid about avoiding anything resembling creationism that they have to reassure themselves when new ideas come up, even if the ideas are no threat to their core beliefs. [/opinion]
It's disappointing and makes it hard to take anything this guy says seriously, regardless of how reasonable or far fetched his formula is.
Agreed. I'm sure internally, Valve deals with the same circus of foibles that every other tech company sees. But externally, looking at their overarching business strategy, it's really satisfying to see them playing the long game, and knowing that in all probability the PC gaming market will continue to benefit from their efforts.
"...but said the opinions of her former employer would not guide her work."
I wonder if she rolled her eyes and winked after saying this.
This is one of those situations where I think the chosen person could actually do an enormous amount of good if they had the will to, but I have little to no hope that that will be the actual outcome.
*slow clap*
Absolutely magnificent. Thank you, this made my day.
>I don't have to hold my tongue when someone is wrong
I respectfully disagree. You should definitely speak up if something is wrong, and it's good that you're in an environment that allows you to. That being said, I suspect that the number one "communication problem" software developers tend to have is coming across as having an overactive ego, that your word is the divine truth handed down to the unwashed tech-illiterate masses, and that their opinions don't actually matter in the face of the cold, hard facts you bring to the table. I don't think this is the dev's actual attitude (most of the time), but it's so, so easy to come across that way. Coming up with ways to share an idea while making sure your audience understands yet doesn't feel talked down to is a skill I know a lot of devs could stand to learn. If your coworkers feel respected by you, that goes a long way toward improving communications.
The other problem I see frequently is a general lack of visibility into what progress is actually being made on the seething morass of shifting dev priorities. Even something as simple as a daily/weekly project status update e-mail to the right people can do wonders here.
(This question gets deep into greater issues of how much power tech people have and their perceived role in businesses and society, which is far too big a discussion to be had here. Short version: IT experts are witches).
Full disclosure: I am a career software developer, and like to believe I do pretty good at the communicating with business thing.
I think the top of Spain is pretty flat. You could probably land there if you can get nestled under that French overhang.
Other than that, though, yeah, that's way too prickly. The next closest viable landing spot is over on that Brazilian ledge, and even then you'd need to make sure you get a firm perch so you don't slip off and fall to the Antarctic floor below.
Not that many customers are going to be scared off.
Most people don't care about the NSA reading their data.
Businesses care about competitors reading their data, not the NSA.
This, sadly. I wish the general public could be bothered with this, and I also wish we could point to one particular distraction as the culprit, like Jersey Shore or the fact that we haven't been able to run a planned government budget since 1997, but the NSA issue is a particularly bad symptom of a larger problem.
Actually, that budget thing sounds pretty bad.
Second this. There are numerous languages out there that are tailor-made for specific kinds of problems. You didn't quite share enough to narrow down what kinds problems you need to solve, but the R project is geared toward number crunching, albeit with a significant bent toward statistics and graphic display.
http://www.r-project.org/
If that's not pointed in the right direction, some other language might be. Alternatively, there are a lot of libraries out there for the more popular languages that could help with what you're doing. Heck, 12 years ago we didn't even have the boost libraries for C++. It's difficult for me to imagine using that language with out them now.
The summary eludes to it, but the articles I've read so far on it fail to mention that the landing happened *when it was dark out*. I haven't seen a specific time of landing yet, but it's looking like it was well after sunset, which is why the note about not having lights on is so noteworthy.
Untrained landings under pressure are heroic feats as it is. Doing so as it's getting progressively darker outside turns it up to 11.
Let's imagine your mother has received a PDF document in her email, and she has to add it to the repo. Would you really make her use git? Just making her email the file to you isn't a good solution in this case.
I would not make her use command line git, but I would make her use one of the many GUI clients available for git. If she can be trained to use whatever you're using now, she can be trained to use one of these.
I would be nice to her and spend some time hanging out with her after the training, of course. She's my mom. I would also expect her to need repeated training, but I would expect that of anyone who is not tech savvy.
Nope. I agree that my wording for defining the event was poorly chosen, but I hold that it made sense. Read it again. If you don't have a good statistics textbook, for some help on sample group vs population, here's a good place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(statistics) .
Remember, a working knowledge of statistics is useful and fun!
--Summer Glau
For those of you who know something about statistics, consider this math problem:
A sample group of 24,000 students who think they have what it takes to go to a university take the entrance exam. Out of those 24,000, none of them pass the exam.
Let event A be a randomly selected student from this population passing the exam. Find the maximum value of P(A) that would keep the results of the sample group above within a 95% confidence interval.
Then, once you've done that, think long and hard about the reasons why nobody passed the test.
From someone who has shared a similar experience:
http://www.co-optimus.com/
You will want to filter out the FPS titles, but there are dozens of good, modern recommendations there. And that doesn't even include older games.
I guess that money I shelled out for an exercise bike to slouch on while I watch Food Network shows was wasted, huh?
It turns out that playing video games on a regular basis trains you to be better at the skills those games demand.
It also turns out that some video games train valuable skills while still being fun, and other video games train you to be a vegetable.
News at 11.
I know it's not what they mean by "exotic crystals", but when I see the phrase I start thinking about mana and elemental damage. Sorry guys.
Regarding the edit: I don't really think removing the change.gov content was a move to avoid disclosing policy on whistleblowers. You can find discussion about whistleblower protections in even greater detail on whitehouse.gov. Example: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/image/ppd-19.pdf . Came up after a simple search for "whistleblowers".
I didn't read every last word of the PDF, so I can't certify whether it follows the spirit of the original paragraph on change.gov. It seems to limit protected whistleblowing to information shared up the chain of command instead of with the public. Makes me wonder if they know what the word "whistleblower" means. Still, it's certainly more official than a campaign promise, and it's readily available.
What I read in your comment:
------
Again, being a stupid fucking ideologue makes you useless to any conversation.
[Paragraphs of text that I would expect to see from a "stupid fucking idealogue"]
Quit being a useless fucking idiotic ideologue.
------
I'm not saying you don't have good points. You probably do! But it's hard to tell.
In the international waters off the coast of Nigeria today, the scourge of modern technology struck again, as the malevolent tendrils of the EOMA-68 entity claimed another civilian freighter. Witnesses claimed they could hear the eerie sounds of Vivaldi's Four Seasons emanating from the amorphous ropes of wires and circuitry. Within hours, the ship's hull was cannibalized and added to EOMA-68's writhing mass. Officials are demanding a unilateral military response from the UN and neighboring allies.
Seriously, "Boards Ship" was not the best turn of phrase to use there. I got a kick out of it, though.
My initial reaction to the summary: Okay, I know a lot of us in Slashdot crowd are gullible, but seriously? I demand a plausible lie.
Reaction after reading the article: I suspect that the translation from an actual technical explanation to language intended for the layman was shaky at best. I don't think I've read an adequate explanation of how it actually works.