I agree that software needs more focus, though it's harder to paint a quick picture in people's minds unless you say something like "make more apps."
I was actually very pleased that he used the example of firefighters downloading building plans on their way to a fire on their "PDA", since that's an app I actually built a few years ago (and current client... http://getblazemark.com/
Focus depends on ease and effectiveness of narrative. If you can't get a hit in 10 seconds, it won't give the punch.
There's two opposing groups to reckon with here: the employees and the shareholders. The latter wants the highest profit.
So as a "good" corporate manager, which group are you kind to? The only real answer for the shareholder side is... maximize profits until morale/turnover sinks to the point where product (and profits) suffer. Any further spending for the employees is a negative for the shareholders.
Or you can sway the balance to treating your employees better for other than profit motives... good PR, good retention, higher creativity/productivity. Again, unless these translate into better revenues, it's taking away from the shareholders.
UNLESS... the shareholders, as a group, also want to "do good" and treat employees better than the bottom dollar.
Java EE 6 completes the job started in Java EE 5, which is essentially... re-do everything using the best practices developed in the last 10 years, learning from everyone's new ideas and jettison'ing the old. Convention over configuration, annotations, streamlining... all decent throughout.
Standard Java EE is now very robust, speeds development, assures safety, and aids test-driven development.
I also think this particular stack will hang around for a good number of years, if not decades. They finally got it right.
the biggest loss would be multiple extensions for the same line. Can cell phones do this? One number for multiple cell phones? If not, this would suck for couples and families sharing a phone.
>The emergence of Brain kicked off lots of other viruses such as Lehigh, Jerusalem, Cascade and Miami.
I was a student consultant at the Lehigh University computer center (Bethlehem PA, USA) in 1986 when the "Lehigh" virus surfaced. We called it PC-AIDS and told people to wear their "floppy condoms" (write protect tape). A few consultants (Loren Keim et al) wrote the antivirus program for it.
As far as I know, this was the first virus to get national attention. A letter from our center's director was printed verbatim in a PC Magazine column, and that got picked up by other media.
It was interesting to see how people first reacted to the idea of a computer virus. Our references to AIDS and condoms certainly didn't help. It freaked people out (remember, this was 1986).
To me, the most interesting part of the project is their patters-by-numbers. I can see this being useful immediately. Anyone know of Photoshop filters that do similiar tasks?
I agree completely. I've long thought that Smalltalk should be the first computer language taught for three reasons:
1. It's a very clean and succinct language that allows developers to focus on core design issues, not idiosyncratic implementation ones.
2. The Smalltalk environment (class hierarchy & GUI framework) is a wealth of terrific design patterns that are used in most other GUI frameworks. Practically every good idea in other frameworks (Swing, JGL, Collections API, etc) comes straight from the Smalltalk environment.
3. It makes you use OO & design patterns. There's no way around it in Smalltalk. The flexibility of the environment (incremental compiles) fosters the habit of constant refactoring, which is extremely valuable.
As for the comment above about using C so that beginners become aware of hardware issures, I strongly, strongly disagree. I'd much rather have a developer who can think in objects from the get-go, who has the discipline to constantly refactor specific classes into a generally useable ones, who uses design patterns. In my experience, developers who focus primarily on issues like optimizing memory tend to cloud up the code and lose the "design forest" for the trees.
Another question is: is Smalltalk too advanced for a college freshman? I don't think so, unless the college freshman spent his high school years coding in C or VB. The largest part of the Smalltalk learning curve is *unlearning* the procedural mindset.
1. Swing can be slow (and is getting quicker), but java's considerable quicker than most people think. Most slow java programs are poorly written.
2. The drawing errors are due to DirectX and can be eliminated with a JRE switch. As for look & feel, you can very easily switch to Windows, Mac, or Motif (depending on the platform).
3. Try InstallAnywhere. Completely solves the JRE install problem. Also Java Web Start.
When most left-brain-only types say "content", they frequently exclude visual content, calling it "style" instead. Images ARE content. Many are more comfortable with visual & aural communication, and there are good reasons for this.
Gravity is an architecture I developed more than ten year ago that worked something like this. I had anonymous micropayments built into from the start. Never got funding for it and the web came along a few years later, making most of it moot.
BTW, "Immuexa" is currently the name of my company. Back in 92, it was my name for what became the web. The software product was called Colony. We sold the trademark last year, so were legally required to change the name (to ThoughtShop).
Slashdot Mirror
nine-nines ...
eight-nines
seven-nines
six-nines
In a few minutes, it'll be two hours down.
Actually, yes. Here's how to wire it for the Mac:
http://bigfractaltangle.com/20...
Nevermind IMEI blacklists and such ... deleting my private data after a theft would be nice.
And yes, such a rule is ripe for abuse, and so is probably not a good idea in general.
I agree that software needs more focus, though it's harder to paint a quick picture in people's minds unless you say something like "make more apps."
I was actually very pleased that he used the example of firefighters downloading building plans on their way to a fire on their "PDA", since that's an app I actually built a few years ago (and current client ... http://getblazemark.com/
Focus depends on ease and effectiveness of narrative. If you can't get a hit in 10 seconds, it won't give the punch.
There's two opposing groups to reckon with here: the employees and the shareholders. The latter wants the highest profit.
So as a "good" corporate manager, which group are you kind to? The only real answer for the shareholder side is ... maximize profits until morale/turnover sinks to the point where product (and profits) suffer. Any further spending for the employees is a negative for the shareholders.
Or you can sway the balance to treating your employees better for other than profit motives ... good PR, good retention, higher creativity/productivity. Again, unless these translate into better revenues, it's taking away from the shareholders.
UNLESS ... the shareholders, as a group, also want to "do good" and treat employees better than the bottom dollar.
It's about the shareholders, not the managers.
And this is how we get to that scene in Wall-E as he's leaving Earth.
Google karma points are are 1/5th the cost in Kenya and India, but Indian workers come back as ...
Having just finished a non-trivial project using Java EE 6, I'm very pleasantly surprised at how far things have progressed in the Java world.
I used:
* Glassfish (app server)
* JPA 2 (EclipseLink)
* JSF 2 (Mojarra)
* EJB 3.1
* PrimeFaces (excellent JSF toolkit)
* Selenium/JUnit/Maven, etc.
* Java 6+
Java EE 6 completes the job started in Java EE 5, which is essentially ... re-do everything using the best practices developed in the last 10 years, learning from everyone's new ideas and jettison'ing the old. Convention over configuration, annotations, streamlining ... all decent throughout.
Standard Java EE is now very robust, speeds development, assures safety, and aids test-driven development.
I also think this particular stack will hang around for a good number of years, if not decades. They finally got it right.
the biggest loss would be multiple extensions for the same line. Can cell phones do this? One number for multiple cell phones? If not, this would suck for couples and families sharing a phone.
>The emergence of Brain kicked off lots of other viruses such as Lehigh, Jerusalem, Cascade and Miami.
I was a student consultant at the Lehigh University computer center (Bethlehem PA, USA) in 1986 when the "Lehigh" virus surfaced. We called it PC-AIDS and told people to wear their "floppy condoms" (write protect tape). A few consultants (Loren Keim et al) wrote the antivirus program for it.
As far as I know, this was the first virus to get national attention. A letter from our center's director was printed verbatim in a PC Magazine column, and that got picked up by other media.
It was interesting to see how people first reacted to the idea of a computer virus. Our references to AIDS and condoms certainly didn't help. It freaked people out (remember, this was 1986).
my mistake, texture by numbers
To me, the most interesting part of the project is their patters-by-numbers. I can see this being useful immediately. Anyone know of Photoshop filters that do similiar tasks?
I agree completely. I've long thought that Smalltalk should be the first computer language taught for three reasons:
1. It's a very clean and succinct language that allows developers to focus on core design issues, not idiosyncratic implementation ones.
2. The Smalltalk environment (class hierarchy & GUI framework) is a wealth of terrific design patterns that are used in most other GUI frameworks. Practically every good idea in other frameworks (Swing, JGL, Collections API, etc) comes straight from the Smalltalk environment.
3. It makes you use OO & design patterns. There's no way around it in Smalltalk. The flexibility of the environment (incremental compiles) fosters the habit of constant refactoring, which is extremely valuable.
As for the comment above about using C so that beginners become aware of hardware issures, I strongly, strongly disagree. I'd much rather have a developer who can think in objects from the get-go, who has the discipline to constantly refactor specific classes into a generally useable ones, who uses design patterns. In my experience, developers who focus primarily on issues like optimizing memory tend to cloud up the code and lose the "design forest" for the trees.
Another question is: is Smalltalk too advanced for a college freshman? I don't think so, unless the college freshman spent his high school years coding in C or VB. The largest part of the Smalltalk learning curve is *unlearning* the procedural mindset.
1. Swing can be slow (and is getting quicker), but java's considerable quicker than most people think. Most slow java programs are poorly written. 2. The drawing errors are due to DirectX and can be eliminated with a JRE switch. As for look & feel, you can very easily switch to Windows, Mac, or Motif (depending on the platform). 3. Try InstallAnywhere. Completely solves the JRE install problem. Also Java Web Start.
"he lives below the senseless stars, and writes his meaning in them"
When most left-brain-only types say "content", they frequently exclude visual content, calling it "style" instead. Images ARE content. Many are more comfortable with visual & aural communication, and there are good reasons for this.
Gravity is an architecture I developed more than ten year ago that worked something like this. I had anonymous micropayments built into from the start. Never got funding for it and the web came along a few years later, making most of it moot.
For the curious (written in 1992): Nine Principles and Gravity Notes
BTW, "Immuexa" is currently the name of my company. Back in 92, it was my name for what became the web. The software product was called Colony. We sold the trademark last year, so were legally required to change the name (to ThoughtShop).