This is the email I sent to MM after receiving their whiny "notice" that MM would stop talking to my iPod if I installed iTunes. I did install iTunes....but MM don't work because I shitcanned it.;-)
Sirs:
Hmmm...iTunes is faster at ripping, has better integration with my iPod, has a cleaner, more intuitive interface with less of the glitzy crap that MM comes with. iTunes also starts faster, only uses a single window on my desktop and integrates with Apples music store and proprietary music formats. I also don't use either for playing music on my PC, prefering the QCD player.
Apple didn't make the choice...I did. I uninstalled MusicMatch and have no intentions to go back to your bloated, cumbersome, slow, unreliable package when iTunes does everything I need and more.
The only reason I used MM was because it was the only option on a Windows box. Now that iTunes is here....MM is history as far as I am concerned.
After living with MM for about 6 months, I can truly say that I do "get the best possible experience when managing your MP3 collection and transferring music to your iPod" to quote your words. By using iTunes for Windows.
Your implication that MM is better than iTunes is both insulting and incorrect based on my experience.
Maybe the answer is for the pendulum to swing back to a more "middle" position, which is where reality tends to reside?;-)
Hmm....the review of this book coupled with the precepts of the book itself would seem to presage the swinging back of the pendulum to a more "reasonable" position.
'Bout time if you ask me. Not that you did...but having used custom processes that incorporated parts of Waterfall, Scrum, XP, Agile and more,
I've never liked the "one size fits all" pronouncements of zealots. Be they Java,.NET, Linux, XP or any other kind of zealots.
The answer is usually 42. How it applies depends...
The best technology does not always win...in fact I'm not sure that it even wins the majority of the time.
Business is based on people. It's messy...it's full of politics, prejudices, preconceptions and downright greed sometimes. Note that "best solution" is not in that list.
Products rarely sell themselves, which is why the initiator of this thread was asking for advice.
One approach I have used is the "toe in the water" approach. If you have a project that is not mission critical, say some higher profile, but non-transactional system, it might be easier to get management to agree to try something new out like OSS. If they get a taste of success, with a huge cost savings (on a TCO basis) then watch them become converts and push to do some mission criticals next.
First we had machine language, where you actually input the programs in binary using front panel switches (yeah....I'm an olde phart and I remember those days!).
Then we had Assemblers, that made things a bit easier.
Then we saw the development of C as a higher level of assembler.
Basic came into play and presaged the scripting languages.
After that we see rapid progression of C++, Java, Perl, Python, PHP, VB and many others, some closer to the iron and others not. Some compiled, some interpreted, and many both.
It would seem to me (from my aged perspective) that programmers are seen as dealing with a lower level of abstraction than scripters (this is assuming all other things being equal, such as ability to translate requirements into logical, maintainable code artifacts, which are the same on the part of "good" developers, regardless of language).
However, the next wave is already upon us. Consider Web Services. Basically a distributed component model with a standardized encoding (XML) and layered on top of internet protocols.
So what is the best way to "glue" individual Web Services together into an "application"? It's not to write code (be it programming with Java or scripting with Perl...subsitute your fav languages if you don't like my examples), since that pours "procedural" concrete (to varying degrees) on top of a very flexible component model.
It's to use declarative specification. So we are seeing the emergence of BPM engines (Business Process Management) which can execute the specifications (XML-based more often than not these days) and with graphical modelling/process flow creation tools (typically based on a variant of UML).
So whether scripters are lower in the esteem rankings than programmers is irrelevant, since the next wave seems to be specifiers.
> Considering that compiling Java into a native
> executable would seriously improve its
> performance (and remove the JVM requirement), I > wonder why the memo doesn't discuss that
> possibility?
There are such compilers already out there. I have had great success writing Java code for Palm PDA's using the open source Jump tool which compiles down to native MC68K code. Great performance compared to a JVM (eg. SuperWaba), and makes Java that much more attractive on constrained devices.
Wasn't this in an X-Files espisode? Talk about conspiracy theories...
Checking the Sokymat site reveals:
"SOKYMAT® has developed special epoxy transponders which, already at an early production stage, can automatically be integrated into the tire or subsequently be attached to the tire with a patch."
Hmmm....early production stage? That doesn't sound like technology that is already in your tires, now does it? At least not yet!
My partner and I built a similar system using off the shelf parts (consumer GPS device, cell phone, embedded Java processor all mounted on a Radio Shack R/C truck) and open source software. We're currently working on adding Bluetooth to the platform for both cable replacement and remote configuration over short distances.
Our solution used XML and Web Services from end to end, doing XML/SOAP parsing on the embedded processor to a back end J2EE system and also to a.NET server (the MS Terraserver for the aerial satellite photos we used for moving map display of position).
Our J2EE server was a Linux box, running Tomcat, JBoss and lots of other open source stuff, including my own open source, Java, GPS Library code.
All this in our spare time, with very little expense. We blew away a lot of people when we demo'ed it at JavaOne this past Spring (the big boys like Sun/IBM/BEA et were just talking about the interoperability promise of Web Services...while were were demoing it live...to an embedded processor no less).
There's a white paper available that describes (in detail) what we did and the software/hardware that we used, for those that are interested.
And being mounted on an R/C truck gave it serious geek coolosity factor too!
From the author of "Peopleware" (a highly recommended read), Tom DeMarco, comes a book called "Slack - Getting past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of total efficiency", which is an excellent, high-level analysis of the less people/more work issue at the core of this thread.
To quote from the preface of the '02 Edition:
"The worday for most of us was busy and getting busier during the entire period of the 90's, while Western economies were booming. In the downturn of 2000-2001, companies have tended to respond with layoffs, so the same work has had to be divided up among fewer employees, making them busier still.
When the problem was to take advantage of the boom, the response was 'Work Harder'. When the problem was to survive the correction, the response was 'Work Harder'. In other words, managements prescription for these two very different periods has been essentially the same: Pile more work on few people, increase efficiency and cut costs.
When you find yourself applying the same response no matter what the stimulus, you're no longer acting in an entirely rational way. Your behaviour is more characteristic of addiction. Companies that are addicted to cost cutting, overtime and ever more pressure may prosper in the short term, but it can't last."
Tom discusses the mutual exclusivity between flexibility (corporate ability to change) versus efficiency. How "slack" fosters creativity, promotes quality and produces growth by providing time to think, reflect, analyze and hence make superior decisions. Something that is sorely lacking in Corporate America these days.
My own gut feel is that this "downturn" will be nothing compared to what will happen as more people burn out, check out and abandon sweatshop environments for human-sensitive ones. Many established companies will suffer greatly, and possibly not even survive during a potential backlash....but the caveat is, the economy has to improve first! Ooops...bit of chicken and egg there.
Anyway, back to my mini-book-review of "Slack". The book is a nice light read....suitable for a plane trip (and not a long one). The only issue I have is that many of the prescriptions need to be adopted and implemented by management...and pointy-haired managers are unlikely to do so.
When you can afford to (problematic for many employees in this economy), vote with your skills and go searching for a company that understands the precepts in "Slack". You'll be glad you did, and maybe, just maybe, we'll get rid of more of the PHM's in favour of enlightened management that understands the benefits of the longer term approach.
The book is available at amazon. Highly recommended for those that care about this topic.
Lazarus Long (aka Robert Heinlein) said it all with these two quotes:
"Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something."
"Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let's play that over again, too. Who decides?"
The US system (and others like ours in Canada) are simply compromises that land somewhere on the line spanning LL's two extremes. There is no "perfect" solution...though there may be a marginally "better" one than the current version.
Also check out the Mobile GPS Demonstration Platform (MGDP) project info (in.pdf format). I built some mapping/tracking display software (based on the GPS Library) that is used as part of this project.
...regardless of whether they are 'Einsteins" or "no steins".
They can be inspired, motivated or lead, or in so many cases, the diametric opposite of these.
But managed? I don't think so. That term implies, to me, that you can coerce people into doing good work.
Good bosses set aggressive but achievable goals, inspire their staff to great performances, and eliminate roadblocks and irritants taht stand in the way of progress. Good bosses also genuinely give a shit about their people.
Org charts should show the classic pyramid inverted, with the point on the bottom...and the corporate culture should reflect that.
I suppose this means that there are few bosses that fit my definition of "good".
And you can make beer from hemp too, which is a life-saver after wading through most technical books (regardless of the paper they are printed on) and can loosen the where clause restriction looks="good" when doing SQL searches for wimmin.
Geeks with ecological consciences. What will they think of next?;-)
BTW...I live a mile down the road from a hemp farm. Their summer hemp festival is like a mini-Woodstock, and the hemp beer goes down nicely on a warm summer's day.
I could see how the AquaPad might make a nice in-car GPS (Global Positioning System) platform. Laptops are unwieldy in cars, and the screen displays on most GPS units are too small.
Hey...I'ld be glad to port my open source, java-based GPS access library and demo programs to the AquaPad (avail for d/l at GPS Java Library)....IF they send me a loaner AquaPad to port and test on!;-)
I find these announcements more interesting when taken in concert (ie. AquaPad, Sharp Zaurus, etc.) as an indication of where technology is evolving towards, rather than as the coming of the holy grail of new machines.
> Not all geniuses are saintly or perfect. Some > can be simultaneously offensive, delightful, in > your face and profound in both their prescient > visions and their spectacular errors. They are > also terrifically alive. Hmmmm...you sure that Jon Katz is not descended from the Bruno line?
I hate the term....
People cannot be "managed" (with the implication being that you are forcing them to do something they would not otherwise do).
They can be led....inspired...motivated....
At least if you want long term, productive teams this is the case.
Funny thought, coming from a CTO that supposedly has many "management" responsibilities.
One poster has it right....management is the panacea for those that are too afraid to show some leadership and trust in their team members.
Very sorry to see Q go....he was a gem in the Bond flicks, and many condolences to the family. But, anyone else wonder who was at fault in the crash? I've almost been taken out by an inordinate amount of "grey hairs" that should have been restricted to driving wheelchairs and instead of 3 ton vehicles (regardless of the gadget expertise). Just curious as to what the accident report concluded...
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This is the email I sent to MM after receiving their whiny "notice" that MM would stop talking to my iPod if I installed iTunes. I did install iTunes....but MM don't work because I shitcanned it. ;-)
Sirs:
Hmmm...iTunes is faster at ripping, has better integration with my iPod, has a cleaner, more intuitive interface with less of the glitzy crap that MM comes with. iTunes also starts faster, only uses a single window on my desktop and integrates with Apples music store and proprietary music formats. I also don't use either for playing music on my PC, prefering the QCD player.
Apple didn't make the choice...I did. I uninstalled MusicMatch and have no intentions to go back to your bloated, cumbersome, slow, unreliable package when iTunes does everything I need and more.
The only reason I used MM was because it was the only option on a Windows box. Now that iTunes is here....MM is history as far as I am concerned.
After living with MM for about 6 months, I can truly say that I do "get the best possible experience when managing your MP3 collection and transferring music to your iPod" to quote your words. By using iTunes for Windows.
Your implication that MM is better than iTunes is both insulting and incorrect based on my experience.
First waterfall....then XP Extreme.
;-)
.NET, Linux, XP or any other kind of zealots.
Maybe the answer is for the pendulum to swing back to a more "middle" position, which is where reality tends to reside?
Hmm....the review of this book coupled with the precepts of the book itself would seem to presage the swinging back of the pendulum to a more "reasonable" position.
'Bout time if you ask me. Not that you did...but having used custom processes that incorporated parts of Waterfall, Scrum, XP, Agile and more,
I've never liked the "one size fits all" pronouncements of zealots. Be they Java,
The answer is usually 42. How it applies depends...
A woman!
;-)
What else?
> A good product should be able to sell itself.
That is such a naive comment, it astonishes me.
The best technology does not always win...in fact I'm not sure that it even wins the majority of the time.
Business is based on people. It's messy...it's full of politics, prejudices, preconceptions and downright greed sometimes. Note that "best solution" is not in that list.
Products rarely sell themselves, which is why the initiator of this thread was asking for advice.
One approach I have used is the "toe in the water" approach. If you have a project that is not mission critical, say some higher profile, but non-transactional system, it might be easier to get management to agree to try something new out like OSS. If they get a taste of success, with a huge cost savings (on a TCO basis) then watch them become converts and push to do some mission criticals next.
...the lights or the camera setup that are at fault!
...the next wave of technology.
It seems to be the natural evolution of things.
First we had machine language, where you actually input the programs in binary using front panel switches (yeah....I'm an olde phart and I remember those days!).
Then we had Assemblers, that made things a bit easier.
Then we saw the development of C as a higher level of assembler.
Basic came into play and presaged the scripting languages.
After that we see rapid progression of C++, Java, Perl, Python, PHP, VB and many others, some closer to the iron and others not. Some compiled, some interpreted, and many both.
It would seem to me (from my aged perspective) that programmers are seen as dealing with a lower level of abstraction than scripters (this is assuming all other things being equal, such as ability to translate requirements into logical, maintainable code artifacts, which are the same on the part of "good" developers, regardless of language).
However, the next wave is already upon us. Consider Web Services. Basically a distributed component model with a standardized encoding (XML) and layered on top of internet protocols.
So what is the best way to "glue" individual Web Services together into an "application"? It's not to write code (be it programming with Java or scripting with Perl...subsitute your fav languages if you don't like my examples), since that pours "procedural" concrete (to varying degrees) on top of a very flexible component model.
It's to use declarative specification. So we are seeing the emergence of BPM engines (Business Process Management) which can execute the specifications (XML-based more often than not these days) and with graphical modelling/process flow creation tools (typically based on a variant of UML).
So whether scripters are lower in the esteem rankings than programmers is irrelevant, since the next wave seems to be specifiers.
The Mobile GPS Demonstration Platform project, which has even more geek coolosity than weather balloons. ;-)
Might presage a bit of an upset of the "big boys of silicon" (eg. Intel, AMD, et al) if it is.
The starlets in Hollywood will be pleased if that happens. More for them.
There are such compilers already out there. I have had great success writing Java code for Palm PDA's using the open source Jump tool which compiles down to native MC68K code. Great performance compared to a JVM (eg. SuperWaba), and makes Java that much more attractive on constrained devices.
..then how come the two women headline singers were Canuckians? (Shania and Celine....and yes, Celine is a Canadian).
;-)
Would have been a more interesting game if Oakland had actually attended.
Wasn't this in an X-Files espisode? Talk about conspiracy theories...
Checking the Sokymat site reveals:
"SOKYMAT® has developed special epoxy transponders which, already at an early production stage, can automatically be integrated into the tire or subsequently be attached to the tire with a patch."
Hmmm....early production stage? That doesn't sound like technology that is already in your tires, now does it? At least not yet!
Big brother will be watching soon though.
My partner and I built a similar system using off the shelf parts (consumer GPS device, cell phone, embedded Java processor all mounted on a Radio Shack R/C truck) and open source software. We're currently working on adding Bluetooth to the platform for both cable replacement and remote configuration over short distances.
.NET server (the MS Terraserver for the aerial satellite photos we used for moving map display of position).
;-)
Our solution used XML and Web Services from end to end, doing XML/SOAP parsing on the embedded processor to a back end J2EE system and also to a
Our J2EE server was a Linux box, running Tomcat, JBoss and lots of other open source stuff, including my own open source, Java, GPS Library code.
All this in our spare time, with very little expense. We blew away a lot of people when we demo'ed it at JavaOne this past Spring (the big boys like Sun/IBM/BEA et were just talking about the interoperability promise of Web Services...while were were demoing it live...to an embedded processor no less).
There's a white paper available that describes (in detail) what we did and the software/hardware that we used, for those that are interested.
And being mounted on an R/C truck gave it serious geek coolosity factor too!
So what's the big deal?
Any chance of you doing a cameo on Enterprise?
Will Captain Kirk re-appear again (oh no...not more "we script writers have a mental block, so let's roll out yet another time-travel plot")?
From the author of "Peopleware" (a highly recommended read), Tom DeMarco, comes a book called "Slack - Getting past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of total efficiency", which is an excellent, high-level analysis of the less people/more work issue at the core of this thread.
To quote from the preface of the '02 Edition:
"The worday for most of us was busy and getting busier during the entire period of the 90's, while Western economies were booming. In the downturn of 2000-2001, companies have tended to respond with layoffs, so the same work has had to be divided up among fewer employees, making them busier still.
When the problem was to take advantage of the boom, the response was 'Work Harder'. When the problem was to survive the correction, the response was 'Work Harder'. In other words, managements prescription for these two very different periods has been essentially the same: Pile more work on few people, increase efficiency and cut costs.
When you find yourself applying the same response no matter what the stimulus, you're no longer acting in an entirely rational way. Your behaviour is more characteristic of addiction. Companies that are addicted to cost cutting, overtime and ever more pressure may prosper in the short term, but it can't last."
Tom discusses the mutual exclusivity between flexibility (corporate ability to change) versus efficiency. How "slack" fosters creativity, promotes quality and produces growth by providing time to think, reflect, analyze and hence make superior decisions. Something that is sorely lacking in Corporate America these days.
My own gut feel is that this "downturn" will be nothing compared to what will happen as more people burn out, check out and abandon sweatshop environments for human-sensitive ones. Many established companies will suffer greatly, and possibly not even survive during a potential backlash....but the caveat is, the economy has to improve first! Ooops...bit of chicken and egg there.
Anyway, back to my mini-book-review of "Slack". The book is a nice light read....suitable for a plane trip (and not a long one). The only issue I have is that many of the prescriptions need to be adopted and implemented by management...and pointy-haired managers are unlikely to do so.
When you can afford to (problematic for many employees in this economy), vote with your skills and go searching for a company that understands the precepts in "Slack". You'll be glad you did, and maybe, just maybe, we'll get rid of more of the PHM's in favour of enlightened management that understands the benefits of the longer term approach.
The book is available at amazon. Highly recommended for those that care about this topic.
Lazarus Long (aka Robert Heinlein) said it all with these two quotes:
"Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something."
"Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let's play that over again, too. Who decides?"
The US system (and others like ours in Canada) are simply compromises that land somewhere on the line spanning LL's two extremes. There is no "perfect" solution...though there may be a marginally "better" one than the current version.
...if you can code in Java, my open source GPS library will make this a much easier process. Demo applications are included (for PC's and Palm's).
.pdf format). I built some mapping/tracking display software (based on the GPS Library) that is used as part of this project.
All at Chaeron GPS Software
Also check out the Mobile GPS Demonstration Platform (MGDP) project info (in
Enjoy!
...regardless of whether they are 'Einsteins" or "no steins".
They can be inspired, motivated or lead, or in so many cases, the diametric opposite of these.
But managed? I don't think so. That term implies, to me, that you can coerce people into doing good work.
Good bosses set aggressive but achievable goals, inspire their staff to great performances, and eliminate roadblocks and irritants taht stand in the way of progress. Good bosses also genuinely give a shit about their people.
Org charts should show the classic pyramid inverted, with the point on the bottom...and the corporate culture should reflect that.
I suppose this means that there are few bosses that fit my definition of "good".
And you can make beer from hemp too, which is a life-saver after wading through most technical books (regardless of the paper they are printed on) and can loosen the where clause restriction looks="good" when doing SQL searches for wimmin.
;-)
Geeks with ecological consciences. What will they think of next?
BTW...I live a mile down the road from a hemp farm. Their summer hemp festival is like a mini-Woodstock, and the hemp beer goes down nicely on a warm summer's day.
Why?
What is pushing you towards such a drastic move, and what do you hope to gain from the effort?
The answers to these questions might make answering Chizor's inquiry easier.
I could see how the AquaPad might make a nice in-car GPS (Global Positioning System) platform. Laptops are unwieldy in cars, and the screen displays on most GPS units are too small.
Hey...I'ld be glad to port my open source, java-based GPS access library and demo programs to the AquaPad (avail for d/l at GPS Java Library)....IF they send me a loaner AquaPad to port and test on! ;-)
I find these announcements more interesting when taken in concert (ie. AquaPad, Sharp Zaurus, etc.) as an indication of where technology is evolving towards, rather than as the coming of the holy grail of new machines.
> Not all geniuses are saintly or perfect. Some > can be simultaneously offensive, delightful, in > your face and profound in both their prescient > visions and their spectacular errors. They are > also terrifically alive. Hmmmm...you sure that Jon Katz is not descended from the Bruno line?
...or software problems like Chrone's disease where the immune subsystem goes wild and attacks everything on your machine.
I can hardly wait.
I hate the term.... People cannot be "managed" (with the implication being that you are forcing them to do something they would not otherwise do). They can be led....inspired...motivated.... At least if you want long term, productive teams this is the case. Funny thought, coming from a CTO that supposedly has many "management" responsibilities. One poster has it right....management is the panacea for those that are too afraid to show some leadership and trust in their team members.
Very sorry to see Q go....he was a gem in the Bond flicks, and many condolences to the family. But, anyone else wonder who was at fault in the crash? I've almost been taken out by an inordinate amount of "grey hairs" that should have been restricted to driving wheelchairs and instead of 3 ton vehicles (regardless of the gadget expertise). Just curious as to what the accident report concluded...