I know most of us are aware of the problems related to government regulation, so I'll skip ranting about that in itself.
However, the article does bring up the question of how to turn information into knowledge, and my position is that by "dumbing-down" the internet (or anything for that matter) you remove the need for people to think for themselves and even if regulation can make sure that information online is factual, it would defeat his purpose creating more knowledge.
How many times have you seen the exposure of hoaxes and vaporware on/.? Probably about as many times as you've heard "Read the damn article first" or "check your facts!" The thing is, most of us are net savvy. We've grown accustomed to the tricks attempted on us. But most times we have to learn the hard way. When's the last time you clicked a p0rn banner ad? Do you even wait for the html to load in an 'on-exit' triggered page?
No, I'm not trying to inflate your ego. My point is that the process of verifying text and validating sources is, in itself, what turns information into knowledge. It's like when Mom told me not to touch the iron: She said it was hot, but that was just information. It took me getting burned to know that both the iron was hot and that Mom could be trusted to deliver reliable information.
That's similar to what we do on the net. Sometimes we're the kid getting burned, and sometimes we have to heave a great *sigh* and point out the dangers even though we know that the newbie we're helping needs to get burned before he'll turn our information into knowledge.
This subject falls under the headings of Theory of Information or Theory of Knowledge and is usually taught in university Philosophy departments. Here's a quick bibliography:
Empirical Knowledge - Paul K. Moser, ISBN 0-8476-7493-2
Theory of Knowledge - Keith Lehrer, ISBN 0-8133-0571-3
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge - George Berkeley, ISBN 0-915145-39-1
Cartesian Meditations - Edmund Husserl, ISBN 90-247-0068-X
A lot of posts have been saying "Why store the number in the first place?" Well, the number can be scrapped in only the best of cases where the item actually ships when it is ordered. Often, however, the item won't ship immediately (real time) or it becomes backordered. In each of these cases (where the initial authorization expires) the online merchant would have to call the customer back to have them read their card number back to them so that they can do a new authorization (and phone calls are MUCH more expensive than email.)
So in most cases the card needs to be stored in order to meet customer expectations. Yes, the thing HAS to be encrypted, and yes, the whole friggin database needs to be behind another firewall so that only the webservers and call center can touch it. However, contacting the customer at every point in the transaction (pre-auth, auth, ship, return) is out of the question.
There is also the matter of reporting. Many online merchants are applying a few rules to prefilter out troublesome accounts (such as accounts that have too many chargebacks) because online retailers (unlike brick and mortar) are charged higher premiums for such things by banks. In these cases they run a script against the report that the bank provides and the only real way to match that up with an account is by card number.
I agree though, that after a couple of months the number can be scrubbed. This would keep the number of vulnerable card numbers down to a minimum. I don't work for a.com anymore so some other keyboard jockey is gonna have to do this:)
The only control ICANN has over the Internet is the control domain admins give it. You know those little entries in your DNS config that points to the TLD servers? Those can be changed. In fact, there seem to be a couple sites that offer alternatives (here's a link to a/. discussion of them.) So here's a quick Howto:
Buy the DNS & Bind book (if you haven't already)
Setup a nice little name server with a catchy TLD like ".slash"
Add your friends' boxes to your new TLD
Change your.sig to tell people how to modify their resolv.conf
Rinse & Repeat
Once roughly a third of the Internet is using "pirate" DNS systems some propeller-head at Yahoo or some such will have the great idea of mirroring all this at their site and ICANN will soil their trousers. You can expect ICANN to pressure ISP's into only using the "official" name servers, and a few lawsuits to settle who can run what services (named) on their own machines. Those things will likely split the Internet (again) between the haves (those who have the knowledge and will to modify their resolve.conf) and the have nots (those who must use their ISP's config.) However, that might be a Good Thing.
"Hmm... this link to l337.h4X0r seems to be broken..."
"Dammit! That darn sensorware must've blocked newdgeeks.slash"
There's an article here about a few NASA studies on sleep schedules (under Altered wake-sleep cycles and Altered work-rest schedules.) In summary, they also found that a "4 on, 4 off" schedule was optimal.
That's the wrong path. The month after we have federal guidelines as to how long IT workers can be forced to work without sleep, we'll see another report about how poor eating habits among IT workers causes colon cancer, kidney stones, and whatnot. Then you'll have the chance to look back and say: "Federal laws already exist governing how long IT workers can be forced to work without sleep..."
No, "new guidelines" are not needed; there is no substitute for common sense, and IT workers have the least to complain about. Most of us choose to work the long hours in anticipation of a greater reward! And if it gets old? There's always a shop down the road that does things differently. The IT industry is now famous for the unconventional methods it uses to lure and keep staff. If 10 hour days are the norm today, "8 hour days!" will be in every want-ad tomorrow.
If you want to revolutionize the workforce, start in Nike's Indonesian shoe factories.
I'm sure most of you can relate to my experience: Getting hired on with a moderate salary, a butt-load of options, and more investment money than time. Our ride ended about this time last year but it's taken us this long to actually close the book.
What you may not be aware of is the move by VC's to demand results and viable plans. Yah, I'm sure you've seen it coming, but it's nice to know a good dose of reality is being injected. In fact, the last VC we talked to said something to the affect of "yah, you need $5M to keep going until next year and you might be profitable by then, but here, take $20M and do it right." That's a trend I can dig. Rather than Quick & Crappy we're getting the financial backing to build Righteous & Robust.
While everyone is talking about how lawless the Internet is, the FTC is stepping in to reassure us all that they are doing their jobs. Beware though: The FTC is a pollitical organization. As such, they are not immune to grandstanding and headline grabbing. To help illustrate my point, let me give you a personal example.
A little while ago I worked at one of the major online retailers. I didn't do any of the front-end design work, but most of the layout was done according to an abstration of common commercial website practices (tabs at the top, menus on the left, etc.) Things were looking good for us: We had a nice looking website and our market share was increasing.
Then absolutely nothing we did was right. All.com's took a beating during last year's Christmas shopping season and public opinion was turned against us. Shortly thereafter (coincidence?) the FTC announced that they were taking on a brave new initiative to crack down on these rogue upshots. We got a letter from them stating that they had a few "issues" with the way our site was organized. Specifically, they wanted us to make the price after rebate less visible and make the actual link to the rebate more visible. Reasonable enough...
So we busted our humps to make their requested changes by their deadline thinking that if we did these things they'd leave us alone. However, right after we showed them our new site they issued a press release patting themselves on the back at how they whipped us into line. I think we were in the same paragraph as some of the most notorious sites out there coupled with the shadiest online business practices.
Anyway, my point is, we need an organization with the power the FTC has, and for the most part what they do is "good," but keep in mind that it is run by politicians.
When I called our local legislative branch about the bill I was asked if I knew what the bill was about and what my position on it was. That, I think, is a reasonable way to filter for informed people. What happened afterwards is a little annoying.
Virginia opted for what I'm sure seemed like a reasonable compromize between my (and other's) fears and the desires of corporate America. They passed the bill so that they could continue to lure companies to Virginia (and keep the ones they have.) Then they said that the bill wouldn't go into affect until after a period of study of its affects (seems kind of odd that they can study something that isn't working, but it sounded good at the time.)
Maybe I've been reading/. too much and have become paranoid, but I've never seen the results of that study and the bill recently, and quietly, came into affect.
So here's my warning: If your state tries this with you and says that their going to do a study, find out who is doing the study, what methods they are going to use, and what the results are. Find out what conditions need to exist in order for the study to invalidate the bill. This will tell you a lot about how serious they are about the study, and whether or not you need to get a new representative.
Quite a while ago I read an incredibly cool SF novel about a guy who had an interesting solution to this problem.
See, his wife was dying of some incurable disease, so he had her frozen. Now, to get her back he realized that he'd have to be frozen also, and that he'd somehow have to convince these future scientists that he was worth unfreezing.
So what he did was he started writing biographies of famous people of the 20th century. However, in each case he was careful to imply that each subject had imparted some vital insights to him that weren't to be put into the biography.
When future scholars read his works they fell for it and had him revived. However the state of the art medical facilities couldn't cure what killed his wife. They did however have relatively advanced spacecraft. To buy himself some time he took his wife (in her little frozen capsule) on a little trip around Pluto at near relativistic speeds. By the time he got back though...
I'm not intending to write a book review for something I haven't read in several years. I forgot the author's name and the book title, but the story stuck with me. If anyone read this gem please clue us all in. I think it dealt exceptionally with various "future travel" schemes.
I just spent 15 minutes going through the page that matches your beliefs to a candidate, and when I got to the end... BLAM! ASP error. I of course refrained from registering so that everyone could see my political bent, therefore the answers to my questions weren't saved. Use this page at your own risk.
Retailers will start to complain that they're losing customers due to the region-coding. Sony and the other big manufacturers will get pressure on them to have region-free models
Unfortunately, even if the CEO of Best Buy called up the CEO of Sony and said that he should start manufacturing DVD players without region encoding, they wouldn't do it. What they would do is use the legal force behind the DMCA to crack-down on stores that sell region-free players, put more pressure on Customs to prohibit the import of those players, and maybe even persuade other government's police forces to stop their manufacture (just like the DeCSS case.)
THAT, I think, is the most likely course of action.
I agree with those of you who've stated that extinct animals are extinct for a reason. However, the understanding that we're gaining through this research provides another possibility I think is worthwhile.
Humans have an annoying habit of building machines and synthesizing chemicals to solve thier problems. This in itself leads to more problems (DDT, cars, guns) which feed back into the cycle (electric cars, electronic safety gun locks, super pesticides.) I'd like to live to see the day when we turn instead to biological solutions. I'd love to commute to work on a horse, house a mosquito-craved bat, or have my wife be allowed to take our dog with her everywhere.
Those where simple examples, but I hope I made my point. In America (and other countries) we've eliminated most life that competes with us and our small cadre of farm stock. As a result, the only strategy left for other species is to avoid man (impossible) or compete better (a la cockroaches.)
However, if we increase biodiversity and learn to adapt ourselves, life will be much easier. This sort of research will enable us to learn from nature's past solutions and build on them.
(PS: Those of you interested in this line of thought would probably like the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, Bantam Books; ISBN: 0553375407.)
But before I go on, let's distinguish what we're talking about here. The RAD tool Kylix (and others like it) are not the total of RAD methodology. Your argument seems to be that the RAD methodology is bad, and seems to conclude that RAD tools are too. Both, however, have a place in development.
RAD tools belong in programming for the same reason the STL and design patterns exist; to keep developers from reinventing the wheel. They also allow junior programmers to be productive while their seniors concentrate on problems that cannot be covered by existing tools. I don't know about you, but coding static web pages bores me, and if some tool can competently code what our designers dream up then I'm all for it.
The RAD methodology also belongs on a programmers resume. Every time a project is desinged you'll find that the functionality your customer wants cannot be crammed into the time you have. So, rather than say "If I can't do it all I'm not going to do it," you compromise. You have your customer prioritize his requirements, fit the highest into your project, and offer to do the rest as a follow-up project.
Yeah, RAD methodology may cause programmers to rush things and that's bad. However, that's not the fault of the methodology, only it's implementation. If you think it's forced you to cut corners and reduce testing time, you didn't scope the project out properly to begin with. Every methodology will fail under that circumstance.
I've also been thinking of making a set-top box TiVo clone. I haven't done anything (yet) but this post had me trekking through the web looking for hardware providers. ATI has some stuff in development and I've seen a few products from General Instruments. However, so far I haven't seen anything for sale to the public.
I can't speak for the author of this article, but it seems to me that he's less upset about his work being distributed but that someone else profiting from it. I'd bet a dollar he'd be happy to see his work distributed via some Napster clone for thesis.
A while ago someone posted a link to the Home Recording Act (the link escapes me at the moment) so I took the chance to browse it. The juicy bit is, every manufacturer of audio home recording equipment pays a kickback to the RIAA for each unit sold. Also, every manufacturer of blank audio recording media has to pay a kickback for each unit of them sold. So, if you plan on boycotting the RIAA, stop buying blank tapes and cassette decks too (even multi-function units like receiver/CD player/cassete decks.)
Pretty cool, huh? Even if make and record your own music on tapes (or make speech tapes or old Atari 800 tape programs or home monitoring tapes or telephone logs) you are supporting the RIAA.
First off, I write the entire project within comments. I use big, broad, full sentances to describe what needs to take place. Usually this can be taken directly from a requirements document.
If you don't have a requirements document I suggest you make one. Independent programmers usually have to do all of the project management tasks themselves and often skip this step to save time. If you know what the customer wants, get it all on paper and have them verify it. If you don't know exactly what they want your programming task is going to be impossible anyway. In fact, this may be what's causing your block: The task is daunting because you don't know what your program is supposed to do!
So assuming you have a set of requirements already, just copy them into your code within comments. This will have the extra benefit of helping you stay on track once you've broken through your writer's block. Don't worry about form just yet - that'll just sidetrack you.
Then, after each comment, just start picking out verbs and nouns. If you're doing OOD, make each noun an object and each verb a method. Identify which nouns are doing the verbs to associate methods to your objects. You'll probably see some predicates to your verbs, so they will naturally fit as parameters to your methods. Lastly, pick out some appropriate attributes. Again, don't worry about filling in the code for the methods, just declare them.
Defining the interfaces is more than half the battle. One of the most helpful lessons I learned in English class was that it doesn't matter what order you actually write the main points of your paper in, just get 'em down and prove them later as the inspiration strikes you. Writing code is exactly the same process.
Well, that's how I usually get started. I hope it helps.
Slashdot Mirror
However, the article does bring up the question of how to turn information into knowledge, and my position is that by "dumbing-down" the internet (or anything for that matter) you remove the need for people to think for themselves and even if regulation can make sure that information online is factual, it would defeat his purpose creating more knowledge.
How many times have you seen the exposure of hoaxes and vaporware on /.? Probably about as many times as you've heard "Read the damn article first" or "check your facts!" The thing is, most of us are net savvy. We've grown accustomed to the tricks attempted on us. But most times we have to learn the hard way. When's the last time you clicked a p0rn banner ad? Do you even wait for the html to load in an 'on-exit' triggered page?
No, I'm not trying to inflate your ego. My point is that the process of verifying text and validating sources is, in itself, what turns information into knowledge. It's like when Mom told me not to touch the iron: She said it was hot, but that was just information. It took me getting burned to know that both the iron was hot and that Mom could be trusted to deliver reliable information.
That's similar to what we do on the net. Sometimes we're the kid getting burned, and sometimes we have to heave a great *sigh* and point out the dangers even though we know that the newbie we're helping needs to get burned before he'll turn our information into knowledge.
This subject falls under the headings of Theory of Information or Theory of Knowledge and is usually taught in university Philosophy departments. Here's a quick bibliography:
Empirical Knowledge - Paul K. Moser, ISBN 0-8476-7493-2
Theory of Knowledge - Keith Lehrer, ISBN 0-8133-0571-3
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge - George Berkeley, ISBN 0-915145-39-1
Cartesian Meditations - Edmund Husserl, ISBN 90-247-0068-X
So in most cases the card needs to be stored in order to meet customer expectations. Yes, the thing HAS to be encrypted, and yes, the whole friggin database needs to be behind another firewall so that only the webservers and call center can touch it. However, contacting the customer at every point in the transaction (pre-auth, auth, ship, return) is out of the question.
There is also the matter of reporting. Many online merchants are applying a few rules to prefilter out troublesome accounts (such as accounts that have too many chargebacks) because online retailers (unlike brick and mortar) are charged higher premiums for such things by banks. In these cases they run a script against the report that the bank provides and the only real way to match that up with an account is by card number.
I agree though, that after a couple of months the number can be scrubbed. This would keep the number of vulnerable card numbers down to a minimum. I don't work for a .com anymore so some other keyboard jockey is gonna have to do this :)
Use intelligent 'alt' tags for images so that it can be understood by blind people
Keep the images that you do use to a minimum
Don't use JavaScript or VB
Use extremely basic HTML
Preview your pages in Lynx
If your boss wants it to be glitzy, code the thing in XML and use XSL to translate it according to the requesting browser's capabilities.
Buy the DNS & Bind book (if you haven't already)
Setup a nice little name server with a catchy TLD like ".slash"
Add your friends' boxes to your new TLD
Change your .sig to tell people how to modify their resolv.conf
Rinse & Repeat
Once roughly a third of the Internet is using "pirate" DNS systems some propeller-head at Yahoo or some such will have the great idea of mirroring all this at their site and ICANN will soil their trousers. You can expect ICANN to pressure ISP's into only using the "official" name servers, and a few lawsuits to settle who can run what services (named) on their own machines. Those things will likely split the Internet (again) between the haves (those who have the knowledge and will to modify their resolve.conf) and the have nots (those who must use their ISP's config.) However, that might be a Good Thing.
"Hmm... this link to l337.h4X0r seems to be broken..."
"Dammit! That darn sensorware must've blocked newdgeeks.slash"
There's an article here about a few NASA studies on sleep schedules (under Altered wake-sleep cycles and Altered work-rest schedules.) In summary, they also found that a "4 on, 4 off" schedule was optimal.
No, "new guidelines" are not needed; there is no substitute for common sense, and IT workers have the least to complain about. Most of us choose to work the long hours in anticipation of a greater reward! And if it gets old? There's always a shop down the road that does things differently. The IT industry is now famous for the unconventional methods it uses to lure and keep staff. If 10 hour days are the norm today, "8 hour days!" will be in every want-ad tomorrow.
If you want to revolutionize the workforce, start in Nike's Indonesian shoe factories.
What you may not be aware of is the move by VC's to demand results and viable plans. Yah, I'm sure you've seen it coming, but it's nice to know a good dose of reality is being injected. In fact, the last VC we talked to said something to the affect of "yah, you need $5M to keep going until next year and you might be profitable by then, but here, take $20M and do it right." That's a trend I can dig. Rather than Quick & Crappy we're getting the financial backing to build Righteous & Robust.
A little while ago I worked at one of the major online retailers. I didn't do any of the front-end design work, but most of the layout was done according to an abstration of common commercial website practices (tabs at the top, menus on the left, etc.) Things were looking good for us: We had a nice looking website and our market share was increasing.
Then absolutely nothing we did was right. All .com's took a beating during last year's Christmas shopping season and public opinion was turned against us. Shortly thereafter (coincidence?) the FTC announced that they were taking on a brave new initiative to crack down on these rogue upshots. We got a letter from them stating that they had a few "issues" with the way our site was organized. Specifically, they wanted us to make the price after rebate less visible and make the actual link to the rebate more visible. Reasonable enough...
So we busted our humps to make their requested changes by their deadline thinking that if we did these things they'd leave us alone. However, right after we showed them our new site they issued a press release patting themselves on the back at how they whipped us into line. I think we were in the same paragraph as some of the most notorious sites out there coupled with the shadiest online business practices.
Anyway, my point is, we need an organization with the power the FTC has, and for the most part what they do is "good," but keep in mind that it is run by politicians.
Virginia opted for what I'm sure seemed like a reasonable compromize between my (and other's) fears and the desires of corporate America. They passed the bill so that they could continue to lure companies to Virginia (and keep the ones they have.) Then they said that the bill wouldn't go into affect until after a period of study of its affects (seems kind of odd that they can study something that isn't working, but it sounded good at the time.)
Maybe I've been reading /. too much and have become paranoid, but I've never seen the results of that study and the bill recently, and quietly, came into affect.
So here's my warning: If your state tries this with you and says that their going to do a study, find out who is doing the study, what methods they are going to use, and what the results are. Find out what conditions need to exist in order for the study to invalidate the bill. This will tell you a lot about how serious they are about the study, and whether or not you need to get a new representative.
See, his wife was dying of some incurable disease, so he had her frozen. Now, to get her back he realized that he'd have to be frozen also, and that he'd somehow have to convince these future scientists that he was worth unfreezing.
So what he did was he started writing biographies of famous people of the 20th century. However, in each case he was careful to imply that each subject had imparted some vital insights to him that weren't to be put into the biography.
When future scholars read his works they fell for it and had him revived. However the state of the art medical facilities couldn't cure what killed his wife. They did however have relatively advanced spacecraft. To buy himself some time he took his wife (in her little frozen capsule) on a little trip around Pluto at near relativistic speeds. By the time he got back though...
I'm not intending to write a book review for something I haven't read in several years. I forgot the author's name and the book title, but the story stuck with me. If anyone read this gem please clue us all in. I think it dealt exceptionally with various "future travel" schemes.
I just spent 15 minutes going through the page that matches your beliefs to a candidate, and when I got to the end... BLAM! ASP error. I of course refrained from registering so that everyone could see my political bent, therefore the answers to my questions weren't saved. Use this page at your own risk.
Unfortunately, even if the CEO of Best Buy called up the CEO of Sony and said that he should start manufacturing DVD players without region encoding, they wouldn't do it. What they would do is use the legal force behind the DMCA to crack-down on stores that sell region-free players, put more pressure on Customs to prohibit the import of those players, and maybe even persuade other government's police forces to stop their manufacture (just like the DeCSS case.)
THAT, I think, is the most likely course of action.
Humans have an annoying habit of building machines and synthesizing chemicals to solve thier problems. This in itself leads to more problems (DDT, cars, guns) which feed back into the cycle (electric cars, electronic safety gun locks, super pesticides.) I'd like to live to see the day when we turn instead to biological solutions. I'd love to commute to work on a horse, house a mosquito-craved bat, or have my wife be allowed to take our dog with her everywhere.
Those where simple examples, but I hope I made my point. In America (and other countries) we've eliminated most life that competes with us and our small cadre of farm stock. As a result, the only strategy left for other species is to avoid man (impossible) or compete better (a la cockroaches.)
However, if we increase biodiversity and learn to adapt ourselves, life will be much easier. This sort of research will enable us to learn from nature's past solutions and build on them.
(PS: Those of you interested in this line of thought would probably like the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, Bantam Books; ISBN: 0553375407.)
But before I go on, let's distinguish what we're talking about here. The RAD tool Kylix (and others like it) are not the total of RAD methodology. Your argument seems to be that the RAD methodology is bad, and seems to conclude that RAD tools are too. Both, however, have a place in development.
RAD tools belong in programming for the same reason the STL and design patterns exist; to keep developers from reinventing the wheel. They also allow junior programmers to be productive while their seniors concentrate on problems that cannot be covered by existing tools. I don't know about you, but coding static web pages bores me, and if some tool can competently code what our designers dream up then I'm all for it.
The RAD methodology also belongs on a programmers resume. Every time a project is desinged you'll find that the functionality your customer wants cannot be crammed into the time you have. So, rather than say "If I can't do it all I'm not going to do it," you compromise. You have your customer prioritize his requirements, fit the highest into your project, and offer to do the rest as a follow-up project.
Yeah, RAD methodology may cause programmers to rush things and that's bad. However, that's not the fault of the methodology, only it's implementation. If you think it's forced you to cut corners and reduce testing time, you didn't scope the project out properly to begin with. Every methodology will fail under that circumstance.
I've also been thinking of making a set-top box TiVo clone. I haven't done anything (yet) but this post had me trekking through the web looking for hardware providers. ATI has some stuff in development and I've seen a few products from General Instruments. However, so far I haven't seen anything for sale to the public.
I can't speak for the author of this article, but it seems to me that he's less upset about his work being distributed but that someone else profiting from it. I'd bet a dollar he'd be happy to see his work distributed via some Napster clone for thesis.
Pretty cool, huh? Even if make and record your own music on tapes (or make speech tapes or old Atari 800 tape programs or home monitoring tapes or telephone logs) you are supporting the RIAA.
If you don't have a requirements document I suggest you make one. Independent programmers usually have to do all of the project management tasks themselves and often skip this step to save time. If you know what the customer wants, get it all on paper and have them verify it. If you don't know exactly what they want your programming task is going to be impossible anyway. In fact, this may be what's causing your block: The task is daunting because you don't know what your program is supposed to do!
So assuming you have a set of requirements already, just copy them into your code within comments. This will have the extra benefit of helping you stay on track once you've broken through your writer's block. Don't worry about form just yet - that'll just sidetrack you.
Then, after each comment, just start picking out verbs and nouns. If you're doing OOD, make each noun an object and each verb a method. Identify which nouns are doing the verbs to associate methods to your objects. You'll probably see some predicates to your verbs, so they will naturally fit as parameters to your methods. Lastly, pick out some appropriate attributes. Again, don't worry about filling in the code for the methods, just declare them.
Defining the interfaces is more than half the battle. One of the most helpful lessons I learned in English class was that it doesn't matter what order you actually write the main points of your paper in, just get 'em down and prove them later as the inspiration strikes you. Writing code is exactly the same process.
Well, that's how I usually get started. I hope it helps.