I agree completely. I hate seeing so-called "experts" who recommend using some crippled, archaic, pidgin version of C++, then complain that C++ is "too low-level."
C++ is definitely not for the "I can learn any programming language in a weekend" kinds of people. It's complex, and has many warts, but trying to make it simple and clean is counter-productive. Stick with VB, C#, or Java if C++ isn't your kind of language.
A company wiki can be very effective if people use it. Otherwise, it's just an electronic big-binder-of-crap-no-one-reads and nobody-updates-this-crap-so-it's-useless-anyway.
What's really needed is to develop a culture of documentation within the company. Ideally, whenever anyone asks a question that's been asked before, the response would be "It's in the wiki somewhere. Try searching for...." When new hires start, tell them which wiki pages to read, and tell them they are authorized to fix any inaccuracies they find. Try having online discussions in the wiki rather than in e-mail. Summarize important offline discussions in the wiki.
While true multitasking is counterproductive, what managers and HR people want are people who can handle interruptions and distractions well. You might like to just stick to "your job", but that's not how business works. If being pulled off of something to handle an hour-long emergency makes you worthless for the rest of the day, then you probably aren't as valuable as someone else would be.
Thinking clearly and keeping good notes helps one pick up where they've left off. People who don't do that are more prone to complain about the loss-of-productivity associated with multitasking.
But I completely agree that only a moron thinks that multitasking is a good thing. Now my compile has finished, so I have to go...
Is there anyone out there who actually uses their ISP-provided email account for anything important? What do you plan to do when you move, or switch ISPs?
All my Bellsouth.net e-mail account contains are lots of marketing messages from BellSouth.
I have a place for my personal things. It's called "my home."
I've never understood why most people feel the need to personalize their workspaces. I've got enough work-related junk in my cubicle--why add to the clutter?
I've had to quit a few employers after getting "promoted" to positions that required me to do more work than I wanted to do. After you reach a certain salary level, another 10% or 20% raise doesn't provide any motivation.
If you are certain that the move will be "counterproductive," come up with some numbers to quantify the cost. How much will all the new licenses cost, both up-front and on an ongoing basis? Will new hardware be needed? How much will it cost to re-train existing staff and/or hire.NET-savvy staff? How much will it cost to port existing apps to.NET? How much will it cost to re-deploy everything?
Put all those numbers together, and you might be able to make good case for sticking with what you've got.
Pre-recorded marketing messages are the worst kind, in my opinion. Why can't we just ban these?
A similar restriction should apply to the predictive dialing systems that automatically call you, then ask you to wait patiently for a person to talk to you.
I'd like to know that, if I have to receive unwanted commercial phone calls, at least these companies have to hire actual people to make the calls.
I hope that if your grandma asks for advice about development tools, you won't just laugh at her and tell here that she can't possibly have the talent, and that she should leave it to someone who does.
As an aside, the iMac G5 is a beautiful machine too and it's totally silent. Spookily silent. When I walked into the home office after shutting down the windows and linux box, I thought we had a power outage.:)
I keep hearing about these "totally silent" iMacs. My new 20" G5 iMac is not totally silent. It is not loud or annoying, but the fan does run continuously.
There are a few touch-sensitive crosswalk buttons near where I live in the US. They emit a startlingly loud "beep", which is jarring enough that I no longer press them.
Considering Apple's history of suing others for copying look-and-feel, trade dress, etc., it's interesting that Steve Jobs thinks using others' intellectual property for commercial gain shouldn't be a big deal.
The article does not really describe specifications or requirements of the application at all, yet a lot of the responses are of the form "I have used library X, and it is is exactly what you need." (And a few are of the form "I have not used library X, but I think it is exactly what you need.")
Many of these suggestions are good, but remember to consider the specific needs of your application first, and don't choose something just because it is cool, open-source, free, cross-platform, has a nice acronym,...
My Visor wouldn't sync until I unplugged the cradle from one USB port and plugged it into the other. That somehow convinced XP to do its "Add New Hardware" dance the next time I hit the HotSync button, and then everything was fine.
Actually, it is all the same. You can learn a new technique here and there, but the basic skills and activities one engages in to write video games are the same ones used to write PDA software or wireless network drivers. It's all long hours sitting bleary-eyed in front of a monitor, wondering why some damn thing doesn't work.
If you like playing with lots of neat toys, breaking them, and then fixing them, then this is a good thing. Don't let the undergrad education get you down--the real world has more stuff to play with than college does.
But if you are expecting a long career filled with new ideas and new challenges, I'd say stay away from computers. You'll learn a lot your first three or four years in the field, but after that, it's all just permutations of stuff you already know.
My personal favorite programming tool for the Palm OS is Quartus Forth (www.quartus.net). It's not free, but it's pretty cheap. And you don't have to be tethered to a PC to hack away.
We recently completed a Windows-based system that uses open-source CORBA implementations (TAO and omniORB) instead of DCOM or other Microsoft-centric distribution technologies.
We had a requirement to provide an "open architecture" to that other vendors using other operating systems could join the system.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree completely. I hate seeing so-called "experts" who recommend using some crippled, archaic, pidgin version of C++, then complain that C++ is "too low-level."
C++ is definitely not for the "I can learn any programming language in a weekend" kinds of people. It's complex, and has many warts, but trying to make it simple and clean is counter-productive. Stick with VB, C#, or Java if C++ isn't your kind of language.
Given a choice between an early death or living with a cat, I'll take death.
A company wiki can be very effective if people use it. Otherwise, it's just an electronic big-binder-of-crap-no-one-reads and nobody-updates-this-crap-so-it's-useless-anyway.
...." When new hires start, tell them which wiki pages to read, and tell them they are authorized to fix any inaccuracies they find. Try having online discussions in the wiki rather than in e-mail. Summarize important offline discussions in the wiki.
What's really needed is to develop a culture of documentation within the company. Ideally, whenever anyone asks a question that's been asked before, the response would be "It's in the wiki somewhere. Try searching for
When it works, it's really cool.
While true multitasking is counterproductive, what managers and HR people want are people who can handle interruptions and distractions well. You might like to just stick to "your job", but that's not how business works. If being pulled off of something to handle an hour-long emergency makes you worthless for the rest of the day, then you probably aren't as valuable as someone else would be.
Thinking clearly and keeping good notes helps one pick up where they've left off. People who don't do that are more prone to complain about the loss-of-productivity associated with multitasking.
But I completely agree that only a moron thinks that multitasking is a good thing. Now my compile has finished, so I have to go...
Is there anyone out there who actually uses their ISP-provided email account for anything important? What do you plan to do when you move, or switch ISPs?
All my Bellsouth.net e-mail account contains are lots of marketing messages from BellSouth.
"...during the two hours before bed drink three or four full glasses of water. Pee before climbing into bed."
And then pee every half hour for the rest of the night. Or maybe you're still in your twenties.
I have a place for my personal things. It's called "my home."
I've never understood why most people feel the need to personalize their workspaces. I've got enough work-related junk in my cubicle--why add to the clutter?
I've had to quit a few employers after getting "promoted" to positions that required me to do more work than I wanted to do. After you reach a certain salary level, another 10% or 20% raise doesn't provide any motivation.
If you are certain that the move will be "counterproductive," come up with some numbers to quantify the cost. How much will all the new licenses cost, both up-front and on an ongoing basis? Will new hardware be needed? How much will it cost to re-train existing staff and/or hire .NET-savvy staff? How much will it cost to port existing apps to .NET? How much will it cost to re-deploy everything?
Put all those numbers together, and you might be able to make good case for sticking with what you've got.
At the bottom of the article:
Priceless.
I've scored mega points with my young nieces with the following simple toys;
- a tent ($15 at Walmart)
- Socker Boppers
- pretend picnic stuff
- pretend tools (hammer, screwdriver, etc.)
It's more likely our leaders will give the "convert or die" to them, heat-rays notwithstanding.
Try podcasts. Much more variety than FM radio.
I don't think there is anything more "unexperimentive" than FM radio.
Pre-recorded marketing messages are the worst kind, in my opinion. Why can't we just ban these?
A similar restriction should apply to the predictive dialing systems that automatically call you, then ask you to wait patiently for a person to talk to you.
I'd like to know that, if I have to receive unwanted commercial phone calls, at least these companies have to hire actual people to make the calls.
I hope that if your grandma asks for advice about development tools, you won't just laugh at her and tell here that she can't possibly have the talent, and that she should leave it to someone who does.
I keep hearing about these "totally silent" iMacs. My new 20" G5 iMac is not totally silent. It is not loud or annoying, but the fan does run continuously.
There are a few touch-sensitive crosswalk buttons near where I live in the US. They emit a startlingly loud "beep", which is jarring enough that I no longer press them.
Considering Apple's history of suing others for copying look-and-feel, trade dress, etc., it's interesting that Steve Jobs thinks using others' intellectual property for commercial gain shouldn't be a big deal.
Many of these suggestions are good, but remember to consider the specific needs of your application first, and don't choose something just because it is cool, open-source, free, cross-platform, has a nice acronym, ...
My Visor wouldn't sync until I unplugged the cradle from one USB port and plugged it into the other. That somehow convinced XP to do its "Add New Hardware" dance the next time I hit the HotSync button, and then everything was fine.
Actually, it is all the same. You can learn a new technique here and there, but the basic skills and activities one engages in to write video games are the same ones used to write PDA software or wireless network drivers. It's all long hours sitting bleary-eyed in front of a monitor, wondering why some damn thing doesn't work.
If you like playing with lots of neat toys, breaking them, and then fixing them, then this is a good thing. Don't let the undergrad education get you down--the real world has more stuff to play with than college does.
But if you are expecting a long career filled with new ideas and new challenges, I'd say stay away from computers. You'll learn a lot your first three or four years in the field, but after that, it's all just permutations of stuff you already know.
And then they'll make you a manager.
Anyone who has a HotMail account, uses MSN, or uses Messenger is using Passport.
And don't forget the free GNU C compiler as well.
My personal favorite programming tool for the Palm OS is Quartus Forth (www.quartus.net). It's not free, but it's pretty cheap. And you don't have to be tethered to a PC to hack away.
-- Kris
We recently completed a Windows-based system that uses open-source CORBA implementations (TAO and omniORB) instead of DCOM or other Microsoft-centric distribution technologies.
We had a requirement to provide an "open architecture" to that other vendors using other operating systems could join the system.
If the government or another external organization tells Clear Channel that they can't play certain songs, that's censorship.
If Clear Channel decides not to play certain songs, that's editorial control; not censorship.