Imagine the PERFECT project, where everything was 100% perfectly accounted for, every situation was coded for, and fully tested, and the goal of shipping with exactly zero defects was met.
A perfect product would take an infinite amount of time to complete.
At some point, you've got to make a trade-off between quality and timeliness (or whatever other factors limit you). Perfection is an unrealistic ideal. Shoot for it. But don't shoot at it.
Where you draw the line, depends on a host of factors, some of which are impossible to determine until after you've shipped. It's the job of the engineer to draw that line, and make the best possible product, given the parameters of the requirements.
You had what these kids lacked. Faith in yourself.
Years of being beaten down by the dumb jocks, and the system that supports and encourages them, and no way to prove their own self-reliance led to a suicide-plot as their only viable option.
If a parent cannot stop their kid from being teased - the one thing they can do that would save them from getting into a mess like this is to teach them some self reliance. The way you learned it is probably the BEST way.
I get the feeling that playing violent video games, for these kids, is sort of an outlet for that need for some kind of self-reliance.
" and from what I saw the biggest problem wasn't that the work was done by the lowest bidder, it was that the requirements were often created by people other than those that know the situation the best. "
I work for a gummint contractor, and I am in 100% agreement with you. So are all of my co-workers, and a buttload of other/. posters today.
It's even worse when COTS software and hardware are involved.
If the project takes 5 years to complete (propose, fund, define, develop, test, implement), you end up with a system that's 5 years out of date. You'll have a bunch of desktop systems with Pentium 90 CPU's, running Windows 95 at best.
And getting any improvements implemented literally takes an act of congress (or "creative accounting" - which several of our larger contractors have been bitchslapped for in recent years).
It's okay in the Military space, because we're still 30 years ahead of any potential competitors technology-wise. But with computers - the backwardsness is blindingly obvious to someone who has an up-to-date system in their own home.
Maybe the problem is - we shouldn't be paying government employees enough money that they can buy better equipment for themselves at home, than we can afford to supply them with for their jobs?
Yes. "Fair and Balanced" Faux news would have us blame the environmentalists for forcing NASA to use unsafe foam.
That makes all the sense in the world. Instead of blaming the engineers who made the decision to launch in the face of overwhelming evidence that: a) Foam is falling off of the tanks (does not matter WHY) b) Foam strikes are already shown to cause tile damage. c) Ice strikes on Atlantis mission in 2000 caused enough tile damage to create a hot-gas breach on re-entry which was non-fatal. (but easily could have been).
These three points show that something was known about the problem and something should have been done. It doesn't matter WHY the foam fell off. It was known to be falling off. The problem was this decision-making process. Not the foam!
Gasses have breached the wing on a previous Atlantis flight. And they didn't even know about it until a postflight inspection, AND, it sounds like the damage almost went unnoticed, and the Atlantis would have launched with the damage from a previous flight, and no replacement of the faulty seal.
This damage was caused by the combination of a faulty seal, and falling ice.
The Columbia is being blamed on just the falling foam. But wouldn't you say that the heat shield was a faulty design?
Did the Soviet shuttle use tiles? The X-33?
I recall during Columbia's first flight - the tile design was questioned in the press. The aluminum structure underneath, of course, is flexible, and it's covering, the tiles, is not. A few tiles popped off on that first flight, and subsequent flights - and it was mentioned that the wrong tiles falling off would have dire consequences.
Sad, that nobody sees this as an unacceptably risky design.
If someone had patented the process of Flint Knapping, we, as a species, would never have made it INTO the Stone Age. Let alone, to the Information Age. It's all about the Information - and if it remains free, we progress. If it's contained, we, as a species are contained.
This is the logical end result of what we all knew had to eventually happen.
Since independent software vendors REFUSE to develop for the platform with the small marketshare, then the Platform Vendor MUST develop all of their own software. Which is what Apple is trying to do now. And Microsoft too.
I think that the amusement parks had this solved for a while. our average water-park ride.
The walkway moves in a large circle, matching speed with the outer radius of a large rotating disk. The user steps off the walkway onto the disk, walks to the center of the disk, it's all about relative velocities. At the center of the disk is a stationary platform, but the relative velocity at the center is much smaller, so the passenger steps off, and goes up the escalator - whoops, same problem again. . .
This is no suprise to me, of course. Corbis, as a company, was founded and funded for this VERY PURPOSE.
It's business model IS - - - IP Hoarding.
The whole point Bill Gates started this company for is to buy up all the IP he could afford with his Microsoft Monopoly War Chest, and create an ancilliary IP War Chest. The only downside is that he has to keep a back-pocket full of high-quality IP lawyers and lobbyists on staff.
Someday, he'll figure out how to replace lawyers with machines to lower his base-labor cost and increase his profitability.
When you look at how cheap it is to buy a politician these days (www.opensecrets.org) - you'll see that soon, Bill Gates will be able to purchase (not lease) every politician in the US from the President on down to the janitor at the county courthouse.
" Ah yes, the good old "Only the guilty need fear" argument, shame its a fiction.
Around the world we have countless examples of restrictions made in the name of national security actually being used against the country's own citizens. East Germany, Russia, China, most of the old communist countries and so on."
Don't forget the good old Ghost of McCarthy. We've been doing this stuff in America for a long time as well.
" I just used the DMCA to get back control of my personal website from the ISP that was holding it hostage. Without the DMCA, I would have had to fight in district courts over copyrights, it would have taken me months and many bucks spent on shyster lawyers. But a single DMCA affadavit and bam, my personal work is back under my control."
Ever since Shelley's Frankenstein, we've all been terrified of the idea that technology could be put to ill use, or turned against us, or even turn on us.
This is one case that has a huge potential for that. Another "Liberty" / "Security tradeoff.
We have to ask ourselves a crucial question when judging the use of such technology.
Is it REALLY that necessary to deprive people of their freedom, in order to ensure their freedom?
There is NO freedom that can be given that isn't some form of collar-and-lead. Freedom must be TAKEN.
Because the official "line" from the present administration is that 9/11 was caused by Saddam Hussein, and in order to stop terrorism, we must kill all the mooslims.
Improving airport security costs money, reduces the efficiency of our economy, and is generally unAmerican.
(This message has been brought to you by Sarcasm. Don't watch the news without it!)
She could be flat-chested, and have packed her bra with C-4, with a detonator cleverly hidden in her belt buckle or shoes.
Then she could assemble the bomb(s) in the lavatory on the plane.
A suprising number of women who are too chicken to get a boob job wear falsies. So a security person, spotting falsies, would necessarily need to do a tactile examination to make sure they're made of squishy silicone, instead of not-so-squishy C-4. On the other hand, some nitrate slurries could be made to resemble silicone.
Okay, if he asserts that redoing the test WITH hyperthreading, and on Windows, will only slow down the Intel scores, then DO IT.
I think that Apple should benchmark every case, especially the ones that the Wintel boosters are whining about, and post ALL the results. It certainly can't hurt if the G5 wins them all anyway. And even if it does not, it will bolster the argument that Apple's trying to be a straight shooter with these tests, which will help their credibility. Which is important, because that's at least as much at stake here, as the arguably temporary "bragging rights" of being the fastest.
After looking at these machines, the prices, and available configurations, it seems to me that the middle configuration is the winner.
The low end one does not have PCI-X, and at $2000, it's pretty pricey, though you could remove the superdrive, modem, and load it up with cheap 3rd party RAM (only up to 4 gig tho). Does not seem to be competitively priced with Wintel.
The dual 2 GHz seems nice for the price, but you can't get less than 512 megs of RAM, or 160 gig HD, to save yourself a few bucks that you don't need to spend. So if you're frugal, Apple gets that little "dig" into you for at least a few hundred anyway. WHY do they do this. Are they just anal control freaks? Some people like to do all they can to minimize PORK items from a purchase, so why won't Apple throw us a friggin bone here?
But the middle-system is ok, because you can unload some of that way-overpriced Apple RAM, the combo drive, the modem, and get it down to around $2200, which is only slightly more expensive than the overpriced bottom model, + PCI-X and no RAM limit (and a trivially faster CPU, which you're going to upgrade in 3 years anyway).
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ALL engineering is a series of trade-offs.
Imagine the PERFECT project, where everything was 100% perfectly accounted for, every situation was coded for, and fully tested, and the goal of shipping with exactly zero defects was met.
A perfect product would take an infinite amount of time to complete.
At some point, you've got to make a trade-off between quality and timeliness (or whatever other factors limit you). Perfection is an unrealistic ideal. Shoot for it. But don't shoot at it.
Where you draw the line, depends on a host of factors, some of which are impossible to determine until after you've shipped. It's the job of the engineer to draw that line, and make the best possible product, given the parameters of the requirements.
Isn't this a rather basic question?
You had what these kids lacked.
Faith in yourself.
Years of being beaten down by the dumb jocks, and the system that supports and encourages them, and no way to prove their own self-reliance led to a suicide-plot as their only viable option.
If a parent cannot stop their kid from being teased - the one thing they can do that would save them from getting into a mess like this is to teach them some self reliance.
The way you learned it is probably the BEST way.
I get the feeling that playing violent video games, for these kids, is sort of an outlet for that need for some kind of self-reliance.
exactly.
Remember that study that went out in the 1960's that said that Hats Cause Hair Loss?
It was because balding men tended to wear hats more than men with hair.
Perhaps kids with violent tendencies tend to like violent video games? Naww. One gains more political capital by banning violent video games.
" and from what I saw the biggest problem wasn't that the work was done by the lowest bidder, it was that the requirements were often created by people other than those that know the situation the best. "
/. posters today.
I work for a gummint contractor, and I am in 100% agreement with you. So are all of my co-workers, and a buttload of other
DingDingDingDingDingDingDingDingDingDing!
I think we have a winnah here.
It's even worse when COTS software and hardware are involved.
If the project takes 5 years to complete (propose, fund, define, develop, test, implement), you end up with a system that's 5 years out of date. You'll have a bunch of desktop systems with Pentium 90 CPU's, running Windows 95 at best.
And getting any improvements implemented literally takes an act of congress (or "creative accounting" - which several of our larger contractors have been bitchslapped for in recent years).
It's okay in the Military space, because we're still 30 years ahead of any potential competitors technology-wise.
But with computers - the backwardsness is blindingly obvious to someone who has an up-to-date system in their own home.
Maybe the problem is - we shouldn't be paying government employees enough money that they can buy better equipment for themselves at home, than we can afford to supply them with for their jobs?
Yes. "Fair and Balanced" Faux news would have us blame the environmentalists for forcing NASA to use unsafe foam.
That makes all the sense in the world. Instead of blaming the engineers who made the decision to launch in the face of overwhelming evidence that:
a) Foam is falling off of the tanks (does not matter WHY)
b) Foam strikes are already shown to cause tile damage.
c) Ice strikes on Atlantis mission in 2000 caused enough tile damage to create a hot-gas breach on re-entry which was non-fatal. (but easily could have been).
These three points show that something was known about the problem and something should have been done. It doesn't matter WHY the foam fell off. It was known to be falling off. The problem was this decision-making process. Not the foam!
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=53 3&ncid=533&e=3&u=/ap/20030708/ap_on_sc/shuttle_ear lier_breach
Gasses have breached the wing on a previous Atlantis flight. And they didn't even know about it until a postflight inspection, AND, it sounds like the damage almost went unnoticed, and the Atlantis would have launched with the damage from a previous flight, and no replacement of the faulty seal.
This damage was caused by the combination of a faulty seal, and falling ice.
The Columbia is being blamed on just the falling foam. But wouldn't you say that the heat shield was a faulty design?
Did the Soviet shuttle use tiles?
The X-33?
I recall during Columbia's first flight - the tile design was questioned in the press. The aluminum structure underneath, of course, is flexible, and it's covering, the tiles, is not. A few tiles popped off on that first flight, and subsequent flights - and it was mentioned that the wrong tiles falling off would have dire consequences.
Sad, that nobody sees this as an unacceptably risky design.
No, because the guy who had the patent would've cloven his skull with a flint axe.
Or, you could just join the SCA, and wear a 10-gauge STEEL hat.
That's where that mental clarity comes from when you're fighting. . .
If someone had patented the process of Flint Knapping, we, as a species, would never have made it INTO the Stone Age. Let alone, to the Information Age. It's all about the Information - and if it remains free, we progress. If it's contained, we, as a species are contained.
This is the logical end result of what we all knew had to eventually happen.
Since independent software vendors REFUSE to develop for the platform with the small marketshare, then the Platform Vendor MUST develop all of their own software. Which is what Apple is trying to do now. And Microsoft too.
Now, if you had said something like "do not click on this link" [goatse.cx], then I'm sure far more people would have clicked.
I think that the amusement parks had this solved for a while. our average water-park ride.
The walkway moves in a large circle, matching speed with the outer radius of a large rotating disk. The user steps off the walkway onto the disk, walks to the center of the disk, it's all about relative velocities. At the center of the disk is a stationary platform, but the relative velocity at the center is much smaller, so the passenger steps off, and goes up the escalator - whoops, same problem again. . .
This is no suprise to me, of course.
Corbis, as a company, was founded and funded for this VERY PURPOSE.
It's business model IS - - - IP Hoarding.
The whole point Bill Gates started this company for is to buy up all the IP he could afford with his Microsoft Monopoly War Chest, and create an ancilliary IP War Chest. The only downside is that he has to keep a back-pocket full of high-quality IP lawyers and lobbyists on staff.
Someday, he'll figure out how to replace lawyers with machines to lower his base-labor cost and increase his profitability.
When you look at how cheap it is to buy a politician these days (www.opensecrets.org) - you'll see that soon, Bill Gates will be able to purchase (not lease) every politician in the US from the President on down to the janitor at the county courthouse.
" Ah yes, the good old "Only the guilty need fear" argument, shame its a fiction.
Around the world we have countless examples of restrictions made in the name of national security actually being used against the country's own citizens. East Germany, Russia, China, most of the old communist countries and so on."
Don't forget the good old Ghost of McCarthy. We've been doing this stuff in America for a long time as well.
" I just used the DMCA to get back control of my personal website from the ISP that was holding it hostage. Without the DMCA, I would have had to fight in district courts over copyrights, it would have taken me months and many bucks spent on shyster lawyers. But a single DMCA affadavit and bam, my personal work is back under my control."
. . . yes, but what about your eternal SOUL?
Forget it.
Howard Dean is also one of THEM.
Ever since Shelley's Frankenstein, we've all been terrified of the idea that technology could be put to ill use, or turned against us, or even turn on us.
This is one case that has a huge potential for that.
Another "Liberty" / "Security tradeoff.
We have to ask ourselves a crucial question when judging the use of such technology.
Is it REALLY that necessary to deprive people of their freedom, in order to ensure their freedom?
There is NO freedom that can be given that isn't some form of collar-and-lead. Freedom must be TAKEN.
You've been made to feel afraid by the very people who are supposed to be protecting you.
Free your mind.
Because the official "line" from the present administration is that 9/11 was caused by Saddam Hussein, and in order to stop terrorism, we must kill all the mooslims.
Improving airport security costs money, reduces the efficiency of our economy, and is generally unAmerican.
(This message has been brought to you by Sarcasm. Don't watch the news without it!)
Falsies.
She could be flat-chested, and have packed her bra with C-4, with a detonator cleverly hidden in her belt buckle or shoes.
Then she could assemble the bomb(s) in the lavatory on the plane.
A suprising number of women who are too chicken to get a boob job wear falsies. So a security person, spotting falsies, would necessarily need to do a tactile examination to make sure they're made of squishy silicone, instead of not-so-squishy C-4.
On the other hand, some nitrate slurries could be made to resemble silicone.
Freedom must always be taken.
There is no freedom that can be given that isn't some form of collar-and-lead.
In other words, this Law doesn't do jack shit.
Okay, if he asserts that redoing the test WITH hyperthreading, and on Windows, will only slow down the Intel scores, then DO IT.
I think that Apple should benchmark every case, especially the ones that the Wintel boosters are whining about, and post ALL the results. It certainly can't hurt if the G5 wins them all anyway. And even if it does not, it will bolster the argument that Apple's trying to be a straight shooter with these tests, which will help their credibility. Which is important, because that's at least as much at stake here, as the arguably temporary "bragging rights" of being the fastest.
After looking at these machines, the prices, and available configurations, it seems to me that the middle configuration is the winner.
The low end one does not have PCI-X, and at $2000, it's pretty pricey, though you could remove the superdrive, modem, and load it up with cheap 3rd party RAM (only up to 4 gig tho). Does not seem to be competitively priced with Wintel.
The dual 2 GHz seems nice for the price, but you can't get less than 512 megs of RAM, or 160 gig HD, to save yourself a few bucks that you don't need to spend. So if you're frugal, Apple gets that little "dig" into you for at least a few hundred anyway. WHY do they do this. Are they just anal control freaks? Some people like to do all they can to minimize PORK items from a purchase, so why won't Apple throw us a friggin bone here?
But the middle-system is ok, because you can unload some of that way-overpriced Apple RAM, the combo drive, the modem, and get it down to around $2200, which is only slightly more expensive than the overpriced bottom model, + PCI-X and no RAM limit (and a trivially faster CPU, which you're going to upgrade in 3 years anyway).