What about people like me that are a little of each and some of neither?
Does their study show why Conservatives want to blame all their problems on Mexicans or why Liberals are a bunch of pansies that want to back out of a war we need to win and can win? Or maybe they can say why neither conservatives or liberals are really open to a real discussion about much of anything - they all would rather spout off about their idealology rather than actually working together to study issues and come up with real solutions.
To me the study just seems to indicate that Conservatives are dyslexic. As if we didn't already know that Bush had some sort of speech disorder. Doh.
I'd rather they release a version without a hdd, for cheaper, and let me put my own hdd in. For $100 I can put in a 500GB drive which just makes the drives they include look tiny.
Do anything but use Perl. Perl programs are often a nightmare to maintain because the vast majority of them are written by people who don't really know how to program in Perl and don't know or care enough to keep their programs readable. Perl is just to easy to make a freaking mess from so use it only when you have a specific job it's good for.
Python works quite well for implementing the logic of an application thanks to it's clean syntax and good object support. It's not always the easiest to get working, and keep working, with your web server though. That's something I think should be improved. It works great but isn't as good a solution for a new developer because of that issue.
PHP I usually use only for output logic and templating. I make remote calls to my app logic via XML-RPC and then use PHP to make it look nice. PHP is really easy to develop in so long as you don't code like a novice and cram everything into it. If you must program your entire app in PHP then please keep things clean and don't write HTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL, and PHP all inline. Don't mix user interface logic with application logic. If your application logic is going to be simple enough it's fine to write it in PHP so long as you keep it tidy. Sometimes it's easier than messing around with setting up something like Python as a backend.
As for glitz over function - don't do it! Make sure things work first and then go back and try to make them look and feel nicer where you can - if you think it will really help. Don't make things complex to maintain if it isn't going to benefit the user. With CSS and Javascript behaviors it's easy to write a clean XHTML site and then layer in improved looks and interactivity.
I was a programmer before the web came into existance and I started make web sites. I think there is a major benefit to learning to be a programmer and sysadmin first because you understand better how things can be done to be more effecient and easier to maintain.
I've often seen developers spending a lot of time doing even simple tasks like preparing images that'd be much easier if they had programming experience. For example, cutting out product images - my graphic artists tend to hand trim the pictures which takes forever and results in a rough edge. When I do it I create a second layer in which I fill in the parts I don't want using the very quick use of the select tool and sliding the sensitivity back and forth. Then I use a drawing tool to just fill in the individual pixels I need to smooth things out. Mine take about 30 seconds each and look nicer than my graphic artists' 5 minute effort.
I've seen developers spend a lot of time coding in features that could be configured in a couple minutes of configuring the web server or using a system feature such as cron jobs.
In principal I agree with the article that it's good to gather requirements before you start and don't repeat yourself but I feel I have to point out that web development is often a rapid application design type of thing where you aren't given significant time to plan or implement your work and requirements will change often. It's best to develop some best practices that work for everything and stick to it. Usually your boss or client isn't going to have any idea what the requirements are so stick to your best practices unless you have something specific that needs changed and update your best practices as you build experience. Do try to keep from duplicating work or repeating yourself but don't spend an exhaustive amount of time avoiding it - instead do your work and refactor now and then as needed. Refactoring is a much better idea than trying to plan every possibly line of code.
Testing I think is probably the most important thing, after following standards, that most web developers don't do. Get at least IE6, IE7, Firefox, Opera, and Safari and test every page of every site with each of them. As you develop test and re-test because things are going to change without you noticing. At least Firefox, Safari, and Ope
That's a good point although I only really see the system complain when I'm running 64bit Linux. I've never noticed the time being off in either though. Even if the virtual machine stays synced to the vm host clock it'd still be useful to have the ntp service running in a virtual machine - if the clock isn't off.
If it's true artificial intelligence then I think it'll be more of an evolved intelligence rather than a designed intelligence so I'd have to go with the robot being evil. The designer just didn't watch enough sci fi movies to know what kind of horror he was bringing into the world.:)
Plug-ins suck. Most of the browser stability issues I've seen have been related to plug-ins.
Modern browsers can do most of what Flash does now. We just need to fill in the gaps (poor video and sound support) and make Javascript, CSS, and DOM support speedy enough to rival Flash. There is no reason Javascript shouldn't be able to execute as fast as Actionscript or that manipulating the DOM/styles should be slower than Flash.
Making those existing standards do the job would be more useful than trying to introduce new standards.
Have you ever managed anybody, raised a child, trained an animal, dealt with a bully, or anything that really requires dealing with behavior control? You don't get anywhere by being weak. You don't have to be an asshole but you do need to take charge and show that you're strong.
There are more than one types of fear. Some are more likely to breed hate than others. These people are already taught to fear and hate us. We're scary in the way of someone you can still run up to and punch in the nose. We need to become so scary that they see us as being on a whole different level than themselves. At the same time we need to be seen as kind and forgiving - by helping them improve their country, improve their quality of life, etc. We need to pour enough force into Iraq that we seem overwhelmingly strong, crush violence with an iron fist, and meanwhile help the average person live a better life.
By using more force you'll have the strength not to cause as much harm. The less harm you cause while helping them the least hatred you'll get.
That is a good point. I do think that the National Guard should not be deployed outside US borders. IMO they are here to protect the US in case of attack and to help with disastors etc. They should not be used like the Army Reserve. But that comes down to reading the details when you sign-up I guess.
People who believe fanatastic, unlikely, promises deserve to get screwed. I get pissed off at those people I know that have been accepting paychecks from the government all these years and then start bitching about actually having to earn them when the war started. I could have used some spare cash too but I didn't sign-up because I didn't want to go fight in a war. It's obvious that they're not giving you cash for the hell of it. Of course when there is a war you're expected to go fight. Doh.
I do think it'd be nice if it was easier to find more realistic information on what being in the military is like. So that people that are interested can get a real picture of how things are before joining.
Diplomacy is for wimps and commies. What would make you think diplomacy would ever have worked? The ultimate solution to any argument is who can kick who's ass. Only intellectuals seem to miss this truth. Just because we are reasonable, intelligent, people does not mean others are. If someone hates you, you can't talk them out of it but you can kick their ass so bad they're scared to mess with you. Simple truth of life.
Only if it is a thinking robot. Without artificial intelligence I don't think it can be evil. Now - as to what morals a robot should have.. hrm.. it has to be nice to other robots?
I just stopped playing those games anyway. None of them was really any fun and I got sick of seeing real life friends refusing to go do real life things because they had to camp and wait (for hours!) for the magic penis stretcher to reappear so they could continue on their quest.
Still, I think they should just roll the development costs into what is covered by subscriptions. I'd be more likely to try more of the games if I could do it without having to buy anything.
What I hate is games like EverQuest that want you to buy the game and then pay a subscription fee. I mean come on make it one or the other. Either I pay for the game and have a free subscription or I get the game for free and pay a subscription fee. Making it both just seems greedy.
I remember when most of my friends started switching from Solaris to Linux for most of their servers. Good ole Slowaris. Switching didn't have much to do with price since at that time most of us had someone else paying the bills anyway. Switching to Linux was more an issue of speed, ease of use, quality, and flexibility. That feeling by so many Solaris users followed by an exodus by so many should have told Sun they were doing something wrong. That was back in the mid nineties.
I think OpenSolaris is here to stay but I think Sun is forgetting that being open means that anything really good that they have implemented will eventually make it's way into Linux and BSD. Of course, likewise, anything good in Linux and BSD will make it's way into OpenSolaris. The real success of such products is in who can create the best developer community. We already have a million types of BSD, Hurd, Linux, and others. Of those Linux has probably the best developer community although some of the BSDs have pretty good communities also. If they want OpenSolaris to succeed they need to make developers want to work with their code. Horrible documentation isn't going to help that happen. Sun has very little experience in creating such communities and has a mixed image as to being a good community player. Will hiring away a few Linux developers really fix that problem? I expect OpenSolaris to stay a also-ran.
Probably the brightest idea for a company like Sun to dive into the open source community would be to buy their way in. Find some hardware company that produces hardware that is less than perfect under Linux and BSD and buy that company and release fully open drivers and specs as part of OpenSolaris. Nvidia might be a pretty good start. Maybe even go so far as to make sure your new drivers also work well in Linux and FreeBSD. That'd gain a huge amount of community trust and interest. Use your money to attack the problems that developers alone can't tackle. At the same time you could take your main competitors, Microsoft and Apple, down a few notches by making the entire group of open OSs have better hardware support.
I think plug-in hybrid's are the way to go. If you have access to a place to plug you can get around without having to use any gas but gas is a backup if you need it. I wonder how much effort is really required to go from making a hybrid to making a plug-in hybrid - it'd seem they'd just need to add another way for the batteries to be charged which would amount to a cord and maybe some circuitry to get voltage and stuff adjusted.
My experience has been that hybrids, in general, have fewer maintenance needs than standard engines. I'm doubtful about buying from an American automaker though because having owned several cars I can say overwhelmingly that the Honda and Toyota branded cars were more reliable than Ford and GM branded cars. I did see an article a few months ago where Ford admited to this and that they claim they're working to improve their standards. Maybe if they'd make a plug-in hybrid available I'd give them another shot. If not, I'll probably buy a Hybrid Accord.
A little to much like 1984 for my tastes although it seems this technology is pretty cool. It's all in how it's used. I wonder if they could implement this in screens without users knowing. That is the scariest part I think. Still, hiding a camera in a standard tv wouldn't be that hard so no huge deal unless cable companies begin giving televisions away for nothing or something suspicious like that.
The biggest problem I have with Libertarianism in general is that they tend to be pro big business. They'd like to substitute big business as our overlords instead of big government. Not very smart. They also tend to think social programs are worthless or evil. It's these issues that mainly keep me from being a Libertarian.
I've yet to find a political party that I feel really represents my values and in general I don't believe in the concept of parties. There is to much fighting about ideaology and not enough real work being done to figure out what actually works better. For the most part I don't care what the solution to our problems is (left, right, libertarian, or whatever) so long as it works well.
Of course my coding style is to make a loose plan, start doing it and seeing what errors come up, revise the plan, make changes and keep coding, respond to errors again, and so on, forever, so that you end up with something that really works and responds to required changes over time. That's how I think government should be. We have to much red tape though - the government just isn't that objective and responsive.
3D can be fun - it just usually isn't. Increased realism isn't that fun. Most game makers have traded game play for realism which is a turn off to casual gamers. I do see that Nintendo is making an effort to change this with the Wii. I like playing GTA but I never play the missions because they just aren't fun. I just run around like a maniac causing mayhem because that is what is fun - especially when you have the cheat codes.
VR goggles don't have to look dorky. They only look dorky because they've so far been made by dorks, for dorks, and have some weird fetish to make them look like they escaped from a chessy 90's movie. Good VR goggles would be integrated into normal, stylish, glasses or sunglasses and should be able to be clear, opaque, or overlaid on reality. Computer argumented vision is cool.:)
Slashdot Mirror
What about people like me that are a little of each and some of neither?
Does their study show why Conservatives want to blame all their problems on Mexicans or why Liberals are a bunch of pansies that want to back out of a war we need to win and can win? Or maybe they can say why neither conservatives or liberals are really open to a real discussion about much of anything - they all would rather spout off about their idealology rather than actually working together to study issues and come up with real solutions.
To me the study just seems to indicate that Conservatives are dyslexic. As if we didn't already know that Bush had some sort of speech disorder. Doh.
I'd rather they release a version without a hdd, for cheaper, and let me put my own hdd in. For $100 I can put in a 500GB drive which just makes the drives they include look tiny.
Do anything but use Perl. Perl programs are often a nightmare to maintain because the vast majority of them are written by people who don't really know how to program in Perl and don't know or care enough to keep their programs readable. Perl is just to easy to make a freaking mess from so use it only when you have a specific job it's good for.
Python works quite well for implementing the logic of an application thanks to it's clean syntax and good object support. It's not always the easiest to get working, and keep working, with your web server though. That's something I think should be improved. It works great but isn't as good a solution for a new developer because of that issue.
PHP I usually use only for output logic and templating. I make remote calls to my app logic via XML-RPC and then use PHP to make it look nice. PHP is really easy to develop in so long as you don't code like a novice and cram everything into it. If you must program your entire app in PHP then please keep things clean and don't write HTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL, and PHP all inline. Don't mix user interface logic with application logic. If your application logic is going to be simple enough it's fine to write it in PHP so long as you keep it tidy. Sometimes it's easier than messing around with setting up something like Python as a backend.
As for glitz over function - don't do it! Make sure things work first and then go back and try to make them look and feel nicer where you can - if you think it will really help. Don't make things complex to maintain if it isn't going to benefit the user. With CSS and Javascript behaviors it's easy to write a clean XHTML site and then layer in improved looks and interactivity.
I was a programmer before the web came into existance and I started make web sites. I think there is a major benefit to learning to be a programmer and sysadmin first because you understand better how things can be done to be more effecient and easier to maintain.
I've often seen developers spending a lot of time doing even simple tasks like preparing images that'd be much easier if they had programming experience. For example, cutting out product images - my graphic artists tend to hand trim the pictures which takes forever and results in a rough edge. When I do it I create a second layer in which I fill in the parts I don't want using the very quick use of the select tool and sliding the sensitivity back and forth. Then I use a drawing tool to just fill in the individual pixels I need to smooth things out. Mine take about 30 seconds each and look nicer than my graphic artists' 5 minute effort.
I've seen developers spend a lot of time coding in features that could be configured in a couple minutes of configuring the web server or using a system feature such as cron jobs.
In principal I agree with the article that it's good to gather requirements before you start and don't repeat yourself but I feel I have to point out that web development is often a rapid application design type of thing where you aren't given significant time to plan or implement your work and requirements will change often. It's best to develop some best practices that work for everything and stick to it. Usually your boss or client isn't going to have any idea what the requirements are so stick to your best practices unless you have something specific that needs changed and update your best practices as you build experience. Do try to keep from duplicating work or repeating yourself but don't spend an exhaustive amount of time avoiding it - instead do your work and refactor now and then as needed. Refactoring is a much better idea than trying to plan every possibly line of code.
Testing I think is probably the most important thing, after following standards, that most web developers don't do. Get at least IE6, IE7, Firefox, Opera, and Safari and test every page of every site with each of them. As you develop test and re-test because things are going to change without you noticing. At least Firefox, Safari, and Ope
That's a good point although I only really see the system complain when I'm running 64bit Linux. I've never noticed the time being off in either though. Even if the virtual machine stays synced to the vm host clock it'd still be useful to have the ntp service running in a virtual machine - if the clock isn't off.
Do they have a VMWare image I can run? Real lite like FreeNAS?
If it's true artificial intelligence then I think it'll be more of an evolved intelligence rather than a designed intelligence so I'd have to go with the robot being evil. The designer just didn't watch enough sci fi movies to know what kind of horror he was bringing into the world. :)
Plug-ins suck. Most of the browser stability issues I've seen have been related to plug-ins.
Modern browsers can do most of what Flash does now. We just need to fill in the gaps (poor video and sound support) and make Javascript, CSS, and DOM support speedy enough to rival Flash. There is no reason Javascript shouldn't be able to execute as fast as Actionscript or that manipulating the DOM/styles should be slower than Flash.
Making those existing standards do the job would be more useful than trying to introduce new standards.
Have you ever managed anybody, raised a child, trained an animal, dealt with a bully, or anything that really requires dealing with behavior control? You don't get anywhere by being weak. You don't have to be an asshole but you do need to take charge and show that you're strong.
There are more than one types of fear. Some are more likely to breed hate than others. These people are already taught to fear and hate us. We're scary in the way of someone you can still run up to and punch in the nose. We need to become so scary that they see us as being on a whole different level than themselves. At the same time we need to be seen as kind and forgiving - by helping them improve their country, improve their quality of life, etc. We need to pour enough force into Iraq that we seem overwhelmingly strong, crush violence with an iron fist, and meanwhile help the average person live a better life.
By using more force you'll have the strength not to cause as much harm. The less harm you cause while helping them the least hatred you'll get.
That is a good point. I do think that the National Guard should not be deployed outside US borders. IMO they are here to protect the US in case of attack and to help with disastors etc. They should not be used like the Army Reserve. But that comes down to reading the details when you sign-up I guess.
I can never get past CmdrTaco.
People who believe fanatastic, unlikely, promises deserve to get screwed. I get pissed off at those people I know that have been accepting paychecks from the government all these years and then start bitching about actually having to earn them when the war started. I could have used some spare cash too but I didn't sign-up because I didn't want to go fight in a war. It's obvious that they're not giving you cash for the hell of it. Of course when there is a war you're expected to go fight. Doh.
I do think it'd be nice if it was easier to find more realistic information on what being in the military is like. So that people that are interested can get a real picture of how things are before joining.
Diplomacy is for wimps and commies. What would make you think diplomacy would ever have worked? The ultimate solution to any argument is who can kick who's ass. Only intellectuals seem to miss this truth. Just because we are reasonable, intelligent, people does not mean others are. If someone hates you, you can't talk them out of it but you can kick their ass so bad they're scared to mess with you. Simple truth of life.
Yeah, but we can download it with BitTorrent. That makes it feel like stealing. Comcast will still screw with our connection.
Only if it is a thinking robot. Without artificial intelligence I don't think it can be evil. Now - as to what morals a robot should have.. hrm.. it has to be nice to other robots?
I just stopped playing those games anyway. None of them was really any fun and I got sick of seeing real life friends refusing to go do real life things because they had to camp and wait (for hours!) for the magic penis stretcher to reappear so they could continue on their quest.
Still, I think they should just roll the development costs into what is covered by subscriptions. I'd be more likely to try more of the games if I could do it without having to buy anything.
America's Army doesn't appear to have evil robots.
Does anyone have a link to download the Ubi games by BT? I'd rather not wait for their stupid download queues etc.
What I hate is games like EverQuest that want you to buy the game and then pay a subscription fee. I mean come on make it one or the other. Either I pay for the game and have a free subscription or I get the game for free and pay a subscription fee. Making it both just seems greedy.
I remember when most of my friends started switching from Solaris to Linux for most of their servers. Good ole Slowaris. Switching didn't have much to do with price since at that time most of us had someone else paying the bills anyway. Switching to Linux was more an issue of speed, ease of use, quality, and flexibility. That feeling by so many Solaris users followed by an exodus by so many should have told Sun they were doing something wrong. That was back in the mid nineties.
I think OpenSolaris is here to stay but I think Sun is forgetting that being open means that anything really good that they have implemented will eventually make it's way into Linux and BSD. Of course, likewise, anything good in Linux and BSD will make it's way into OpenSolaris. The real success of such products is in who can create the best developer community. We already have a million types of BSD, Hurd, Linux, and others. Of those Linux has probably the best developer community although some of the BSDs have pretty good communities also. If they want OpenSolaris to succeed they need to make developers want to work with their code. Horrible documentation isn't going to help that happen. Sun has very little experience in creating such communities and has a mixed image as to being a good community player. Will hiring away a few Linux developers really fix that problem? I expect OpenSolaris to stay a also-ran.
Probably the brightest idea for a company like Sun to dive into the open source community would be to buy their way in. Find some hardware company that produces hardware that is less than perfect under Linux and BSD and buy that company and release fully open drivers and specs as part of OpenSolaris. Nvidia might be a pretty good start. Maybe even go so far as to make sure your new drivers also work well in Linux and FreeBSD. That'd gain a huge amount of community trust and interest. Use your money to attack the problems that developers alone can't tackle. At the same time you could take your main competitors, Microsoft and Apple, down a few notches by making the entire group of open OSs have better hardware support.
I think plug-in hybrid's are the way to go. If you have access to a place to plug you can get around without having to use any gas but gas is a backup if you need it. I wonder how much effort is really required to go from making a hybrid to making a plug-in hybrid - it'd seem they'd just need to add another way for the batteries to be charged which would amount to a cord and maybe some circuitry to get voltage and stuff adjusted.
My experience has been that hybrids, in general, have fewer maintenance needs than standard engines. I'm doubtful about buying from an American automaker though because having owned several cars I can say overwhelmingly that the Honda and Toyota branded cars were more reliable than Ford and GM branded cars. I did see an article a few months ago where Ford admited to this and that they claim they're working to improve their standards. Maybe if they'd make a plug-in hybrid available I'd give them another shot. If not, I'll probably buy a Hybrid Accord.
It's not hard to set the virtual machine so that it doesn't commit changes. That's probably the easiest thing to do. No need to create a new copy.
A little to much like 1984 for my tastes although it seems this technology is pretty cool. It's all in how it's used. I wonder if they could implement this in screens without users knowing. That is the scariest part I think. Still, hiding a camera in a standard tv wouldn't be that hard so no huge deal unless cable companies begin giving televisions away for nothing or something suspicious like that.
The biggest problem I have with Libertarianism in general is that they tend to be pro big business. They'd like to substitute big business as our overlords instead of big government. Not very smart. They also tend to think social programs are worthless or evil. It's these issues that mainly keep me from being a Libertarian.
I've yet to find a political party that I feel really represents my values and in general I don't believe in the concept of parties. There is to much fighting about ideaology and not enough real work being done to figure out what actually works better. For the most part I don't care what the solution to our problems is (left, right, libertarian, or whatever) so long as it works well.
Of course my coding style is to make a loose plan, start doing it and seeing what errors come up, revise the plan, make changes and keep coding, respond to errors again, and so on, forever, so that you end up with something that really works and responds to required changes over time. That's how I think government should be. We have to much red tape though - the government just isn't that objective and responsive.
3D can be fun - it just usually isn't. Increased realism isn't that fun. Most game makers have traded game play for realism which is a turn off to casual gamers. I do see that Nintendo is making an effort to change this with the Wii. I like playing GTA but I never play the missions because they just aren't fun. I just run around like a maniac causing mayhem because that is what is fun - especially when you have the cheat codes.
:)
VR goggles don't have to look dorky. They only look dorky because they've so far been made by dorks, for dorks, and have some weird fetish to make them look like they escaped from a chessy 90's movie. Good VR goggles would be integrated into normal, stylish, glasses or sunglasses and should be able to be clear, opaque, or overlaid on reality. Computer argumented vision is cool.