When I'm in the shop, doing physical work, I love music.
But when I'm doing mental work, like programming or math, I prefer silence. The more slienter the beter.
But... by far the worst work environment I have ever endured was sharing a cubicle with a guy who talked loudly on the phone, about sports, real loud, all the time.
You know what other interface uses all 10 fingers...a piano.
Virtuoso pianists can make magic with the interface.
Most people never really get it.
This is the fundamental limitation of all these schemes. The mouse is easy enough that anybody can use it. The more manual dexterity that's required, the more it becomes like learning to play the piano.
AFIK, most of Vista's problems came from a decision Microsoft made.
For the entire history of Windows, backward compatibility was king. They even emulated old bugs in newer versions.
In Vista, they decided to eliminate the absolute requirement for backward compatibility. Yes...Apple had done this several times already, but for Microsoft, it was a MAJOR philosophy change.
Because of the lack of backward compatibility, users who needed to run old programs stayed away.
Windows 7 is also not backward compatible, but more time has passed, so presumably, less users care about running their aging software.
Cloud computing looks like a technology that users really don't want or need.
It's promoted by those eager to turn a one time purchase into a revenue stream. From the seller's point of view, would you rather sell a $100 hard drive, or a $29.95 a month service.
It's supported by the same "hive-mind" of pundits who thought pen-based computing was the next big thing.
Users want control, freedom and low cost.
The "weasels" want a locked-in, never ending, revenue stream.
Like pen-based computing before it, Cloud computing is a movement created and sustained by the hive-mind of the pundit class, eagerly supported by the hucksters, with everyone trying to make a buck.
The personal computing revolution was all about control. Taking control away from the glass-walled priesthood of the mainframes, and giving it to the people.
I, for one, will never give up control over my important data. To me, the cloud is a nightmare where you have to pay your computing bill, just like your electric bill...or they will turn off your data.
I would be in favor of targeted ads if the advertisers weren't so incompetent.
When I am in the market for a product or service, I seek out and welcome advertisers of that particular product or service.
I have no interest in the grossly generalized target of "males between xx and xx years old who make xx dollars a year". That kind of targeting is almost always wrong. It's just slightly more accurate than spam.
In the perfect world, a customer is in the market for a product or service. The suppliers make their pitch, the customer chooses the best match of product to requirement.
As it currently exists...Advertisers use sophisticated psychological warfare to make you feel good about buying a crappy product you don't need or want.
As it currently exists...advertising sucks, for the advertiser and the customer.
Advertisers waste lots of money on ads that are ignored.
Customers waste lots of time looking at ads for products they don't want.
Perfect advertising would, by definition, be targeted. When a customer was in the market for a product, all of the suppliers of the product would make their pitch. I realize that the spammer mentality would doom this simple scheme, but it remains the goal.
When I am in the market for a product, I welcome, and seek out, advertising of the products I am interested in.
Anybody ever read the Buyers Purchasing Digest? It is/was a publication aimed at engineers, containing only ads. I used to read it cover to cover.
Unfortunately, to the advertisers today, targeted advertising is NOT designed to present ads the customer is really interested in. It is a simplistic scheme, only slightly better than spam. I remember when I bought a house. Got lots of ads from contractors. If the advertisers realized I was a do-it-your-selfer, I would have loved to get ads from building material suppliers.
But...a lot of it is still speculation...NOT proof.
Sounds like a bunch of smart people, with too much idle time, sitting around the university cafeteria asking the question "why do men like big breasts?
They may think up some very clever ideas, but how do they really know any of them are true?
Believe it or not, Microsoft has done a lot to make the computing world better.
Anybody remember color monitors before Windows? It seemed like everybody used a different standard. You had to pick your hardware based on what your software supported. And not all software supported all hardware. Same with printers.
Whatever you may say about Windows, at least it set a standard.
And yes...I am often annoyed/angered/disappointed by some of Microsoft's policies. I often humorously threaten to "quit programming, move to Idaho, and raise potatoes" as a result of Microsoft decisions. My latest sore spot is their decision to lock out hobbyists from kernel mode driver development.
Sometimes, a kernel mode driver is the only way to solve a problem.
The specific languages, and precise order of learning is not that important.
My point was simple. If you don't know assembly, you don't really know how the machine works.
In my daily work, I rarely, if ever, use assembly. But I remember when I first learned it. Something clicked, the light went on, I truly had the feeling that "now I understand".
Slashdot Mirror
Everybody's different.
When I'm in the shop, doing physical work, I love music.
But when I'm doing mental work, like programming or math, I prefer silence. The more slienter the beter.
But... by far the worst work environment I have ever endured was sharing a cubicle with a guy who talked loudly on the phone, about sports, real loud, all the time.
Man pages are great to remind you of the details, if you already know how something works.
Man pages are terrible for learning something new for the first time.
This is marketoid-think at its worst.
Graphic rendering requires very low latency.
Of all the things that might be done in the "cloud", realtime graphics is the silliest.
But, the marketoids have been convinced that the "cloud" is the future, so they invent nonsense scenarios where their products can be used.
You know what other interface uses all 10 fingers...a piano.
Virtuoso pianists can make magic with the interface.
Most people never really get it.
This is the fundamental limitation of all these schemes. The mouse is easy enough that anybody can use it. The more manual dexterity that's required, the more it becomes like learning to play the piano.
Any computer program, whether a game or not, should be repeatable, consistent and comprehensible.
You learn how a program works in a similar way that a scientist learns how nature works.
Do something...observe the result.
Do the identical thing again...observe the identical result.
If the result is not identical, the program becomes incomprehensible.
AFIK, most of Vista's problems came from a decision Microsoft made.
For the entire history of Windows, backward compatibility was king. They even emulated old bugs in newer versions.
In Vista, they decided to eliminate the absolute requirement for backward compatibility. Yes...Apple had done this several times already, but for Microsoft, it was a MAJOR philosophy change.
Because of the lack of backward compatibility, users who needed to run old programs stayed away.
Windows 7 is also not backward compatible, but more time has passed, so presumably, less users care about running their aging software.
Cloud computing looks like a technology that users really don't want or need.
It's promoted by those eager to turn a one time purchase into a revenue stream. From the seller's point of view, would you rather sell a $100 hard drive, or a $29.95 a month service.
It's supported by the same "hive-mind" of pundits who thought pen-based computing was the next big thing.
Users want control, freedom and low cost.
The "weasels" want a locked-in, never ending, revenue stream.
Like pen-based computing before it, Cloud computing is a movement created and sustained by the hive-mind of the pundit class, eagerly supported by the hucksters, with everyone trying to make a buck.
The personal computing revolution was all about control. Taking control away from the glass-walled priesthood of the mainframes, and giving it to the people.
I, for one, will never give up control over my important data. To me, the cloud is a nightmare where you have to pay your computing bill, just like your electric bill...or they will turn off your data.
Advertisers wouldn't pay for ads if they didn't work, at least not for long.
They "work" in a crude, approximate, inefficient way. Kinda like spam.
But, they are doing it poorly.
I would be in favor of targeted ads if the advertisers weren't so incompetent.
When I am in the market for a product or service, I seek out and welcome advertisers of that particular product or service.
I have no interest in the grossly generalized target of "males between xx and xx years old who make xx dollars a year". That kind of targeting is almost always wrong. It's just slightly more accurate than spam.
In the perfect world, a customer is in the market for a product or service. The suppliers make their pitch, the customer chooses the best match of product to requirement.
As it currently exists...Advertisers use sophisticated psychological warfare to make you feel good about buying a crappy product you don't need or want.
As it currently exists...advertising sucks, for the advertiser and the customer.
Advertisers waste lots of money on ads that are ignored.
Customers waste lots of time looking at ads for products they don't want.
Perfect advertising would, by definition, be targeted. When a customer was in the market for a product, all of the suppliers of the product would make their pitch. I realize that the spammer mentality would doom this simple scheme, but it remains the goal.
When I am in the market for a product, I welcome, and seek out, advertising of the products I am interested in.
Anybody ever read the Buyers Purchasing Digest? It is/was a publication aimed at engineers, containing only ads. I used to read it cover to cover.
Unfortunately, to the advertisers today, targeted advertising is NOT designed to present ads the customer is really interested in. It is a simplistic scheme, only slightly better than spam. I remember when I bought a house. Got lots of ads from contractors. If the advertisers realized I was a do-it-your-selfer, I would have loved to get ads from building material suppliers.
WTF!
You claim to be able to design complex, reliable and maintainable systems at 500 wpm?
I call bullshit.
Software design is hard. Even the best of us are slow at it.
I have been programming since 1971.
I can't touch type.
I can, however, type surprisingly fast, using 2 and sometimes 4 fingers.
But, writing software is about a lot more than simply typing fast.
I spend far more time thinking than typing.
And yes, I tried to learn touch typing. I also tried to learn to play the piano. Never did very well at either.
And...I seem to remember seeing a clip of Arthur C Clark writing...with 2 fingers.
A pain-free animal would quickly injure itself, and die.
There is a good reason for pain.
Our current use of SSNs makes no sense at all.
What we need is a unique, unhackable, un-steal-able identifier, to identify each person for life.
What we have today, is the SSN.
In the beginning, it was NEVER intended to be secure or secret or to be used outside of ONE particular system.
But...little by little, companies, governments etc. started using it for other purposes.
So now we have this thing that was never designed to be secure, or even secret, being used for secret, secure identification.
I read the article.
Sounds like somewhat plausible speculation.
But...a lot of it is still speculation...NOT proof.
Sounds like a bunch of smart people, with too much idle time, sitting around the university cafeteria asking the question "why do men like big breasts?
They may think up some very clever ideas, but how do they really know any of them are true?
Believe it or not, Microsoft has done a lot to make the computing world better.
Anybody remember color monitors before Windows? It seemed like everybody used a different standard. You had to pick your hardware based on what your software supported. And not all software supported all hardware. Same with printers.
Whatever you may say about Windows, at least it set a standard.
And yes...I am often annoyed/angered/disappointed by some of Microsoft's policies. I often humorously threaten to "quit programming, move to Idaho, and raise potatoes" as a result of Microsoft decisions. My latest sore spot is their decision to lock out hobbyists from kernel mode driver development. Sometimes, a kernel mode driver is the only way to solve a problem.
Java rules the web?
Yeah...I probably should have said something like "Java is popular among web programmers". When I write fast, I get a little sloppy.
I don't have much time for Slashdot today...got to get back to work...programming in C and C++
C is not the most widely used commercial language and it certainly does not lead the way in open source
So...What is Windows written in?
What is the Linux kernel written in?
What are KDE and Gnome written in?
Autocad...Photoshop...MS Office?
AFIK, they are all C or C++
The specific languages, and precise order of learning is not that important.
My point was simple. If you don't know assembly, you don't really know how the machine works.
In my daily work, I rarely, if ever, use assembly. But I remember when I first learned it. Something clicked, the light went on, I truly had the feeling that "now I understand".
First, learn assembly, it teaches you how the machine works. (You should probably also learn electronics and digital logic)
Then learn C, it is the most widely used in both commercial and open source.
Then learn C++, it is a better C.
Then learn Java, it rules the web.
Then learn Python, it has some very clever ideas.
Finally...never stop learning
I can just imagine the bugs, accidents and outright stupidity that will lead to millions of users asking "where did my data go?"
Today, at my present skill level, I agree.
I prefer working with a good partner.
But...I still believe that learning for the first time is better alone.
It's too easy if your partner finds the bug.
I am SO glad that this stupid idea did not exist when I started learning programming.
If it had, I probably would have quit the class.
I just happen to learn better alone, just me and the machine.
I don't want to have to win a debate with another person before trying something, I just want to try it...now.
...BTW...now that I know what I'm doing, I work VERY well as a member of a team.