I am the proud recipient of an F in Cobol. I was taking assembler, graphics, and physics, and just couldn’t feature wasting my time on that (required) class. At that time made you use punchcards for your first assignment, ostensibly to show you how lucky you were that we now had terminals.
Two years later when I *really* needed to graduate, I spent a total of about 8 hours re-taking it (+ sleeping through the lectures); no punchcards required. Got an A, and haven't touched it since.
My eye doc has warned me against it, because of just the sort of cautions others have expressed: that some very small number of operations go horribly wrong, and there’s no reversal possible after that.
He & I are both older, and like all of us who live long enough, will face cataract surgery at some point. He says there’s an artificial lens in trials for cataracts that can both correct your near/far-sightedness and fix age-related inability to focus on near objects (presbyopia). I’ll keep wearing my gas-permeable hard contacts (have worn contacts for 42 years now) until it’s time to fix cataracts and my other vision issues in one fell swoop.
And why do you think Apple wouldn't give their code-base to Oracle?
I don't think they will because I believe that Apple would rather developers use Objective-C over Java for OSX development for the very same reasons they would rather developers use Objective-C over Flash for iOS development.
What Apple doesn't seem to realize, or doesn't give a crap about, is that many (perhaps most?) Java developers using a Mac are working on server-side applications, and only choose the Mac because they prefer the combination of superior hardware design and clean, elegant OS as the environment they do their work in. I couldn't give a crap about iOS development; I write apps that run on Tomcat/JBoss/etc. Once Apple no longer provides a reasonably solid JVM/JDK for their OS (and won't help Oracle take over support for Java on OS X) I'm down the road. Until the warranty's up, I'll just wipe my Macbook Pro and install Ubuntu (it's still a really nice, but pricey, laptop; best you can buy, IMHO); after the warranty's up, I'll start looking at what Sony, et. al. have to offer.
> They need to stop all this security nonsense and just let people be. It would probably only cost us > 1 or 2 hijackings and maybe a couple planes into a couple buildings every 6 months or a year or so. > We can live with that, eh?
Absolutely. I have a pretty interesting job, and can:
pay my mortgage
save for my daughter's college
save for retirement
put some extra money in the bank
live in Seattle
go home for dinner via a 10-minute commute
I'm sure it would be more interesting working for Google, but I wouldn't get all that, notably the commute and the home for dinner part. It's all a balance.
Ah, but what if your spouse's grandparent was born there? My wife's grandfather was born there, but I'm the geek (and wage-earner) in the family. Can I work there as the spouse of a citizen?
I've been in the Unix/Linux community for ~10 years, not counting a three-year detour developing Java on Win9X/NT. Every time either my dad or father-in-law calls for tech support, I think "why didn't I have him buy a Mac?"
I fully agree, but don't think those shortcomings will have much effect on the future demand for Java geeks. Java is always considered, and often chosen, for new enterprise (i.e. server-side) development due to the happy convergence of:
Developers desiring to use (or have an excuse to learn) Java
Management becoming aware that they:
get a ~50% productivity improvement from their developers (compared to C++), and
won't be over a barrel with a single vendor ("gee, Sun, your price seems sorta steep; guess we'll buy IBM servers this time")
Java experience isn't a drawback regardless of the job you're applying for; I got 3 offers recently for C++ gigs; they agreed that 3+ years as a Java developer would make me a better C++ coder.
Since we're being capitalists, Forbes (the capitalist tool) did an extensive survey of financial sites (http://www.forbes.com/forbes/99/0913/index.htm) which they're keeping updated. A bit daunting, but it should give you some good pointers regardless of the type of service(s) you're looking for.
Slashdot Mirror
Crap, now where am I going to buy more inodes when I run out?
I am the proud recipient of an F in Cobol. I was taking assembler, graphics, and physics, and just couldn’t feature wasting my time on that (required) class. At that time made you use punchcards for your first assignment, ostensibly to show you how lucky you were that we now had terminals. Two years later when I *really* needed to graduate, I spent a total of about 8 hours re-taking it (+ sleeping through the lectures); no punchcards required. Got an A, and haven't touched it since.
My eye doc has warned me against it, because of just the sort of cautions others have expressed: that some very small number of operations go horribly wrong, and there’s no reversal possible after that. He & I are both older, and like all of us who live long enough, will face cataract surgery at some point. He says there’s an artificial lens in trials for cataracts that can both correct your near/far-sightedness and fix age-related inability to focus on near objects (presbyopia). I’ll keep wearing my gas-permeable hard contacts (have worn contacts for 42 years now) until it’s time to fix cataracts and my other vision issues in one fell swoop.
I don't think they will because I believe that Apple would rather developers use Objective-C over Java for OSX development for the very same reasons they would rather developers use Objective-C over Flash for iOS development.
What Apple doesn't seem to realize, or doesn't give a crap about, is that many (perhaps most?) Java developers using a Mac are working on server-side applications, and only choose the Mac because they prefer the combination of superior hardware design and clean, elegant OS as the environment they do their work in. I couldn't give a crap about iOS development; I write apps that run on Tomcat/JBoss/etc. Once Apple no longer provides a reasonably solid JVM/JDK for their OS (and won't help Oracle take over support for Java on OS X) I'm down the road. Until the warranty's up, I'll just wipe my Macbook Pro and install Ubuntu (it's still a really nice, but pricey, laptop; best you can buy, IMHO); after the warranty's up, I'll start looking at what Sony, et. al. have to offer.
Superstition ain't the way.
> They need to stop all this security nonsense and just let people be. It would probably only cost us
> 1 or 2 hijackings and maybe a couple planes into a couple buildings every 6 months or a year or so.
> We can live with that, eh?
Free. Safe. Choose one.
- pay my mortgage
- save for my daughter's college
- save for retirement
- put some extra money in the bank
- live in Seattle
- go home for dinner via a 10-minute commute
I'm sure it would be more interesting working for Google, but I wouldn't get all that, notably the commute and the home for dinner part. It's all a balance.What are you, an anti-fungite?
- Jim, in Seattle, where it's a beautiful, clear & crisp fall day
I use viPlugin with Eclipse. I'm a happy camper.
Word. I just gave up management to go back to full-time geekin'. Ahh, relief.
I'm waiting for a P5 ibook.
Real beer isn't made with rice.
Budweiser is made with rice.
Ergo, Budweiser is not real beer.
Now is the end time for *BSD. *BSD is dead.
Except for the fact that every OS X machine is running BSD, right? (Predicting Apple's death is a loser's game; always has been.)
Yeah, but I still have to lurk rec.humor.funny every now and then, just for old time's sake.
Hmm, well, it's got a nice ring to it.
Oh, it was a serious question?
A job for at least another couple of months.
Ah, but what if your spouse's grandparent was born there? My wife's grandfather was born there, but I'm the geek (and wage-earner) in the family. Can I work there as the spouse of a citizen?
I've been in the Unix/Linux community for ~10 years, not counting a three-year detour developing Java on Win9X/NT. Every time either my dad or father-in-law calls for tech support, I think "why didn't I have him buy a Mac?"
- Developers desiring to use (or have an excuse to learn) Java
- Management becoming aware that they:
- get a ~50% productivity improvement from their developers (compared to C++), and
- won't be over a barrel with a single vendor ("gee, Sun, your price seems sorta steep; guess we'll buy IBM servers this time")
Java experience isn't a drawback regardless of the job you're applying for; I got 3 offers recently for C++ gigs; they agreed that 3+ years as a Java developer would make me a better C++ coder.Since we're being capitalists, Forbes (the capitalist tool) did an extensive survey of financial sites (http://www.forbes.com/forbes/99/0913/index.htm) which they're keeping updated. A bit daunting, but it should give you some good pointers regardless of the type of service(s) you're looking for.