I think a lot of it would be installing infrastructure that is REALLY REALLY robust.
Is that anything like a government that doesn't slaughter its own citizens? Oh, maybe you mean something like a health care infrastructure? Perhaps an educational system? Because surely you can't be talking about fiber optics and that sort of thing -- network equipment needs electricity to run, and they just don't have it...
They need to address issues like fighting famine and building roads infrastructure before they can shift to building IT/telecoms. That's my opinion anyway.
You're on the money with that one. Some things that most (all?) countries in sub-Saharan Africa could use:
A stable government.
A stable legal system. Without either of these, you will not be able to have:
A stable business environment / stable economy. Even with "the foundations of law and democracy" this is difficult to achieve: look at Japan over the last 10 years, and Argentina/Brazil/Mexico over the last 2-5.
Rid the government of corruption. This helps towards fixing the above.
Allow the populace to educate, shelter, and feed themselves. This means anything from a handout to a "hand up", depending on which charity/NGO/whatever you are talking to. It doesn't really matter how it gets done as long as it all gets done (education is the big one for the long term, but it can't happen without the other two). None of this can take place in an environment in which the average Joe lives in fear of a) roving bands of thugs and b) government troops.
Effective measures to prevent the spread of disease. AIDS is a big fear right now. Many children die daily of African sleeping sickness. Malaria is another huge killer. Malaria and one other disease which leads to blindness (blanking on the name right now) are preventable with drugs.
Note that I haven't mentioned an IT infrastructure yet.
Electricity? Yeah, right. Lagos, Nigeria will be the world's 3rd largest city by 2015, behind Tokyo and Bombay. The city is growing rapidly and none of the infrastructure can handle it. It is a big deal that certain companies in the city will be provided with 22h/day electricity at some point in the near future! You can't have an IT infrastructure on 22h/day of electricity (and don't expect 22h/day of "uninterrupted" service).
Don't bother joining the geekcorps if you want to help Africa. Instead get involved with HFH, The Grameen Foundation, The Heifer Project, or any of a number of other fundamental-infrastructure-building organizations. I'm sure geekcorps does great things, but their efforts seem better directed at "second tier" nations that already have basic infrastructure laid and are ready to make the leap into the 20th (yes) century.
When you see this kind of thing, it normally means the person who wrote the code didn't have a clue what they were doing in the uncommented code, hence they had no way of writing anything.
Yup. It also means that they did no design. I've worked with college sophomores that can code. Given a thorough design, they can have it coded with just a few bugs. But even given fairly specific requirements, they will often fail to come up with a reasonable design and their code will not work well. Given relatively vague requirements, they'll probably a) not finish or b) come up with a tangled mess.
Being able to design well is at the core of programming. Don't focus on the coding -- if the design makes sense, it won't really matter if the code is very well commented. Bottom line is that if you don't understand the design that you're coding, your code probably won't work -- and it certainly won't be well commented!
Personally, I hate classes. You're always stuck at the absorption speed of the middle, and often low end, of the class learning curve.
I'm with you here! I'm working on my master's (evening classes, 1 per semester; it will take me forever).
It is discouraging because I feel like I'm learning absolutely nothing. Most of the classes I've been in seem like they're full of idiots, though I know this isn't true -- it's just the idiots that "outshine" the rest. Of the four classes I've taken so far, all of them have been paced WAY TOO SLOW. I don't think anyone ever does the reading or the homework, and is just there to check off the requirement and trudge towards the degree...
The abortion all but certainly costs a mere fraction of what delivery and recovery costs (the health service covers it either way) and you don't have welfare costs for an abortion. Sure someone is paying for it. Their paying a lot less than they would for any of the alternatives.
You missed his point. I don't give a rats ass what you do with your time, just don't ask me to pay for it. Too bad your state didn't go all the way and just plain old ban medicaid. Government has no business providing healthcare, fighting poverty, or anything else. They'll just fsck it up anyway.
Examine the US govts track record (I'm not familiar with any other, but I'll bet the trends are similar):
"war on drugs": lost
"war on poverty": lost. Poverty is worse than when before we started.
"Paperwork Reduction Act": HA! This is redundant!!
education: the more the government gets involved, the dumber our kids get
health care: as government becomes more involved, it becomes harder for people to keep health insurance; to find quality care providers; etc. It is also is a disincentive for young people to enter the health care profession.
Thirty years ago, I learned machine code to program the PDP-8. Why not teach that today? Or why not go further down and teach VLSI processor design, or semiconductor physics?
There is plenty of time (in a four-year university program) for teaching all of the things that you mention. At the University of New Hampshire, the program shares similarities with engineering disciplines: all CS students take physics I and II (where we learned the basics of how transistors work... if I had been paying attention that semester), 2 electrical engineering courses (where we learned how to build a computer out of TTL chips), computer architecture (where we learned the MIPS instruction set and principles behind building an assembler/disassembler), and all of the math/cs courses that build on these (calculus, linear algebra, data structures, oo, combinatorial math, computer networks, language/compiler theory, databases, ai, etc.).
IMO, you need to have all of this theory in order to be a good computer scientist. You can be a reasonably competent programmer without all of this theory, but having it gives you a deeper understanding of the problems that you face on a daily basis. And thus a more effective programmer.
So my point is that there is no one best teaching language. Another poster said you should use whatever is best for the task at hand. We learned scheme, C++, MIPS assembly, C, Z80 assembly, VHDL, SQL, and common lisp. (Roughly in that order, but SQL and clisp were from electives so not everybody got it.)
If Spend.com sent the infomation to Bug.com without going through Alice's computer, then all Bug.com could learn is that someone created a login at Spend.com with the e-mail address alice@example.com.
Wait a minute. spend.com knows all of the information that they discuss (ip, browser type, etc). What prevents spend.com from transmitting this information to bug.com through a separate channel without Alice's knowledge?
-bs
They could, um, replace your public key with their own version causing people to send encrypted email intended for you that they can read.
Yes, this is one of the potential problems.
Except people should be verifying key fingerprints out of band so this doesn't fly.
If you can communicate out of band, why not exchange keys out of band? This is circular. -bluebomber
Corporations are legally bound to put shareholder profits ahead of quality or value to the end user/buyer, which is devastating to the free market.
Right, and there are no consumer protection laws in the U.S. or Europe. Law is complicated. One law says that the board of directors of the corporation must act in the best interest of the shareholders. Other laws prevent companies from selling products which are harmful to consumers, from engaging in (some, not all) practices that are harmful to the environment, from engaging in fraud, etc.
I don't disagree with your points about the drug war, but you lost me with the anti-corporate rant.
I thought the small, agile, companies were going to rule in this era of increasing change ? What went wrong ?
Your logic is somewhat contradictory. It doesn't help that the article is misleading (see other posts here that discuss statistical anomalies).
Questions you should be asking instead: How many of the 200 companies on the 1999 list were on the 1983 list? How many of the 200 companies on the 1999 list were founded after 1983? How many of the 200 companies on the 1983 list filed for bankruptcy prior to 1999? Look at similar results for the top 10 or top 50 companies, you will see a great deal of movement (both up and down).
If you follow business (I doubt that most/.ers actually read the wsj or business week or something similar...), you'll realize that the "small, agile companies" really do rule. The problem is that when small companies succeed, they become big!! This is why I don't understand what all of the anti-corporatism is about. You people don't have a problem with corporations, you have a problem with concentration of power and wealth. A corporation is simply a legal tool to make it easier for individuals to do business with each other. My plumber is a corporation. Is he evil?? I don't think so. Would the entity who takes care of my plumbing be evil if it was a multinational corporation with $250b in sales? Not necessarily.
Even animals are wise enough to set territories for themselves.
Don't be ridiculous. Yes, animals set territories for themselves. And when another animal (of the same species) encroaches on their territory, they threaten. And if the threats don't work, they attack. And if they lose, they're either dead or homeless. Do you really want human society to head (back) to this kind of system? It might be a benefit: only the strong and the strong willed will survive. The weak and helpless will wither and die.
I'm not into this anti-corporate nonsense like a lot of the crowd here, but maybe we're all very lucky that not all of the corporations are lobbying for the same stuff. I mean, there are still opposing interests among the corporate world, right? Be thankful those corporate nasties aren't all fighting for the same thing!
What are the implications of this security break in?
It is a secret plot to chew up bandwidth! The bastards knew that the ensuing discussion on/. would foul up network traffic for hours!!
Seriously, though, think about the annoyance and loss of productivity for all of the people and projects that depend on sourceforge, not to mention the PITA that it will be for the sf admins over the next several weeks. This would NOT be the first time that a pissed off employee tried to screw his former employer... -bluebomber
What applies in the US does NOT apply globally. The US does not allow Congress to recognize a religion. The Australian government is obviously playing a different game.
Of course, I still agree with the general theme of your post: keep the gubmint outta my pockets!
Corporate documents have much different needs than programs.
Well put. MS word has facilities for versioning, specifically the version number, approvals/proposed revisions, and other stuff. I haven't used it extensively, but a google search will probably turn up a tutorial or ten. You could also invest in one of the multitude of books about MS word on the shelf at your local B one of them must discuss versioning. Lastly, check out the commercial offerings posted elsewhere here. -bluebomber
Not really. I have a few mailboxes that are spam-sinks. I don't read them, never intend to, but they don't bounce mail (until they fill up, of course...). -bluebomber
Simple: Offer to perform a smallish security review. For free. No strings attached. If there are gaping holes, it will only cost you a few hours worth of work (and maybe a couple of hours of sales pitch), and has the potential for gaining the client as a customer. I'm not suggesting that you do a full security audit, or even that you hold yourselves out as such. Just that you offer to perform a small service for those customers that you've lost in the past, as a gesture of good will and to demonstrate the quality of the service that you can provide. -bluebomber
Why this insistence on having code be art? It doesn't have to be art in order to be speech!
Not that I disagree with you, code can be art. But it is speech. All computer code is just mathematical notations. Mathematical notations receive protection as speech (look at scholarly research journals). These are used to communicate ideas between individuals.
I forget just who it was, but when one of the greats of computer science came up with the realization that code is *not* for the computer, but rather for other programmers, he hit it right on the head! If we wrote code only for the computers, we might as well just throw all high-level languages (this would include assembly language!) out the door and write machine code. (That's a paraphrase of whatever the aforementioned author penned...)
In some places, it is illegal to posses a handgun. What's the difference? Merely magnitude of the potential crime, I guess... although a can of spraypaint can make a handy flamethrower or bomb.
I know of no Linux user who runs server software like bind or proftpd who does not monitor their logs, subcribe to security listserves and is generally paranoid about being hacked.
Unfortunately, as linux use by the great unwashed masses grows, there will be more instances where the user presses the "server" button on the installation gui, thus exposing bind, ftpd, and everything else with a potential vulnerability. -bluebomber
I had a very similar experience. Didn't thrill me too much. I wouldn't have had any problem with a rejection, but the reasoning was kind of dumb -- I had a connection to the category. Duh. Of course I have a connection to the category! Why the hell else would I be interested in becoming an editor???
Slashdot Mirror
Is that anything like a government that doesn't slaughter its own citizens? Oh, maybe you mean something like a health care infrastructure? Perhaps an educational system? Because surely you can't be talking about fiber optics and that sort of thing -- network equipment needs electricity to run, and they just don't have it...
You're on the money with that one. Some things that most (all?) countries in sub-Saharan Africa could use:
Yup. It also means that they did no design. I've worked with college sophomores that can code. Given a thorough design, they can have it coded with just a few bugs. But even given fairly specific requirements, they will often fail to come up with a reasonable design and their code will not work well. Given relatively vague requirements, they'll probably a) not finish or b) come up with a tangled mess.
Being able to design well is at the core of programming. Don't focus on the coding -- if the design makes sense, it won't really matter if the code is very well commented. Bottom line is that if you don't understand the design that you're coding, your code probably won't work -- and it certainly won't be well commented!
I'm with you here! I'm working on my master's (evening classes, 1 per semester; it will take me forever).
It is discouraging because I feel like I'm learning absolutely nothing. Most of the classes I've been in seem like they're full of idiots, though I know this isn't true -- it's just the idiots that "outshine" the rest. Of the four classes I've taken so far, all of them have been paced WAY TOO SLOW. I don't think anyone ever does the reading or the homework, and is just there to check off the requirement and trudge towards the degree...
You missed his point. I don't give a rats ass what you do with your time, just don't ask me to pay for it. Too bad your state didn't go all the way and just plain old ban medicaid. Government has no business providing healthcare, fighting poverty, or anything else. They'll just fsck it up anyway.
Examine the US govts track record (I'm not familiar with any other, but I'll bet the trends are similar):
There is plenty of time (in a four-year university program) for teaching all of the things that you mention. At the University of New Hampshire, the program shares similarities with engineering disciplines: all CS students take physics I and II (where we learned the basics of how transistors work... if I had been paying attention that semester), 2 electrical engineering courses (where we learned how to build a computer out of TTL chips), computer architecture (where we learned the MIPS instruction set and principles behind building an assembler/disassembler), and all of the math/cs courses that build on these (calculus, linear algebra, data structures, oo, combinatorial math, computer networks, language/compiler theory, databases, ai, etc.).
IMO, you need to have all of this theory in order to be a good computer scientist. You can be a reasonably competent programmer without all of this theory, but having it gives you a deeper understanding of the problems that you face on a daily basis. And thus a more effective programmer.
So my point is that there is no one best teaching language. Another poster said you should use whatever is best for the task at hand. We learned scheme, C++, MIPS assembly, C, Z80 assembly, VHDL, SQL, and common lisp. (Roughly in that order, but SQL and clisp were from electives so not everybody got it.)
If Spend.com sent the infomation to Bug.com without going through Alice's computer, then all Bug.com could learn is that someone created a login at Spend.com with the e-mail address alice@example.com.
Wait a minute. spend.com knows all of the information that they discuss (ip, browser type, etc). What prevents spend.com from transmitting this information to bug.com through a separate channel without Alice's knowledge? -bs
They could, um, replace your public key with their own version causing people to send encrypted email intended for you that they can read. Yes, this is one of the potential problems. Except people should be verifying key fingerprints out of band so this doesn't fly. If you can communicate out of band, why not exchange keys out of band? This is circular.
-bluebomber
Right, and there are no consumer protection laws in the U.S. or Europe. Law is complicated. One law says that the board of directors of the corporation must act in the best interest of the shareholders. Other laws prevent companies from selling products which are harmful to consumers, from engaging in (some, not all) practices that are harmful to the environment, from engaging in fraud, etc.
I don't disagree with your points about the drug war, but you lost me with the anti-corporate rant.
-bluebomber
Your logic is somewhat contradictory. It doesn't help that the article is misleading (see other posts here that discuss statistical anomalies).
Questions you should be asking instead: How many of the 200 companies on the 1999 list were on the 1983 list? How many of the 200 companies on the 1999 list were founded after 1983? How many of the 200 companies on the 1983 list filed for bankruptcy prior to 1999? Look at similar results for the top 10 or top 50 companies, you will see a great deal of movement (both up and down).
If you follow business (I doubt that most /.ers actually read the wsj or business week or something similar...), you'll realize that the "small, agile companies" really do rule. The problem is that when small companies succeed, they become big!! This is why I don't understand what all of the anti-corporatism is about. You people don't have a problem with corporations, you have a problem with concentration of power and wealth. A corporation is simply a legal tool to make it easier for individuals to do business with each other. My plumber is a corporation. Is he evil?? I don't think so. Would the entity who takes care of my plumbing be evil if it was a multinational corporation with $250b in sales? Not necessarily.
-bluebomber
Don't be ridiculous. Yes, animals set territories for themselves. And when another animal (of the same species) encroaches on their territory, they threaten. And if the threats don't work, they attack. And if they lose, they're either dead or homeless. Do you really want human society to head (back) to this kind of system? It might be a benefit: only the strong and the strong willed will survive. The weak and helpless will wither and die.
-bluebomber
How I wish you were kidding. As much as I dislike AT&T (roadrunner/mediaone), at least they filter the ms file sharing ports...
-bluebomber
You said it.
I'm not into this anti-corporate nonsense like a lot of the crowd here, but maybe we're all very lucky that not all of the corporations are lobbying for the same stuff. I mean, there are still opposing interests among the corporate world, right? Be thankful those corporate nasties aren't all fighting for the same thing!
-bluebomber
It is a secret plot to chew up bandwidth! The bastards knew that the ensuing discussion on /. would foul up network traffic for hours!!
Seriously, though, think about the annoyance and loss of productivity for all of the people and projects that depend on sourceforge, not to mention the PITA that it will be for the sf admins over the next several weeks. This would NOT be the first time that a pissed off employee tried to screw his former employer...
-bluebomber
What applies in the US does NOT apply globally. The US does not allow Congress to recognize a religion. The Australian government is obviously playing a different game.
Of course, I still agree with the general theme of your post: keep the gubmint outta my pockets!
-bluebomber
Uh huh. IP infringement is *NOT* an initiation of force.
-bluebomber
Well put. MS word has facilities for versioning, specifically the version number, approvals/proposed revisions, and other stuff. I haven't used it extensively, but a google search will probably turn up a tutorial or ten. You could also invest in one of the multitude of books about MS word on the shelf at your local B one of them must discuss versioning. Lastly, check out the commercial offerings posted elsewhere here.
-bluebomber
Not really. I have a few mailboxes that are spam-sinks. I don't read them, never intend to, but they don't bounce mail (until they fill up, of course...).
-bluebomber
Simple: Offer to perform a smallish security review. For free. No strings attached. If there are gaping holes, it will only cost you a few hours worth of work (and maybe a couple of hours of sales pitch), and has the potential for gaining the client as a customer. I'm not suggesting that you do a full security audit, or even that you hold yourselves out as such. Just that you offer to perform a small service for those customers that you've lost in the past, as a gesture of good will and to demonstrate the quality of the service that you can provide.
-bluebomber
Not that I disagree with you, code can be art. But it is speech. All computer code is just mathematical notations. Mathematical notations receive protection as speech (look at scholarly research journals). These are used to communicate ideas between individuals.
I forget just who it was, but when one of the greats of computer science came up with the realization that code is *not* for the computer, but rather for other programmers, he hit it right on the head! If we wrote code only for the computers, we might as well just throw all high-level languages (this would include assembly language!) out the door and write machine code. (That's a paraphrase of whatever the aforementioned author penned...)
-bluebomber
Reread the parent. He said "legal".
-bluebomber
In some places, it is illegal to posses a handgun. What's the difference? Merely magnitude of the potential crime, I guess... although a can of spraypaint can make a handy flamethrower or bomb.
-bluebomber
Unfortunately, as linux use by the great unwashed masses grows, there will be more instances where the user presses the "server" button on the installation gui, thus exposing bind, ftpd, and everything else with a potential vulnerability.
-bluebomber
Actually "dd." yields: BASH: dd.: command not found
-bluebomber
I had a very similar experience. Didn't thrill me too much. I wouldn't have had any problem with a rejection, but the reasoning was kind of dumb -- I had a connection to the category. Duh. Of course I have a connection to the category! Why the hell else would I be interested in becoming an editor???
-bluebomber