Before dot bomb we all made tons of cash. We were affluent. We were special. Large numbers of people entered the field. Lots of 6 week courses to make you an instant object oriented programmer.
After dot bomb our salaries plummeted. Large companies figure out ways to make us irrelevant through outsourcing. Our peers undercut and underbid us because any work is better than no work. And if you were an employee, you got shuffled into the consultant column to join the growing number of disposable workers. Consultants are an expense after all to whom you do not owe benefits and the like, unlike an employee that is a liability.
Welcome to being a commodity. We are all interchangeable. My computer science degree is worth as much as a 6 week programming course through DeVry. And my exceptional architecture and design skills are worth less than someone that managed to hide away in a big corporation the last 15 years.
Surf some blogs... the move from firewire to usb2 on the latest iPod isn't just an attempt to be more compatible with Wintel. Less circuitry is cheaper.
Thanks for your sarcasm. Its truly unfounded. The fact that you can buy a computer and/or OS to be obsoleted withint a couple months with no free upgrade is piss poor customer service. I also know for 'fact' that many people who invested heavily in the old architecture were confounded by the move to usb and firewire (the latter of which is also being dropped.) SCSI hardware was usually $100 more than IDE or USB ware, so shelling out $300 for some funky adapter that doesn't give you the throughput (USB 10mbps) of ultra SCSI for subsequent versions of an OS that won't fully support any of it kinda explains the reason why the foothold that Apple had in professional DV disappeared.
You buy a computer with (example) 10.1... Two weeks later 10.2 is here! with essential bug fixes. And you need to shell out another $80 bucks for it.
It's almost as funny as telling a guy who sunk $20k into Apple hardware/w high performance SCSI externals for DV that the new hardware has no SCSI support.
I am anti-flash too - but the same comlpaint can be made against Java...
Flash stuff is big - big download - therefor slow - and fixed size - and usually fixed color (thousands).
Guess what. Applets that do animation are big - slow - fixed size! Not only that, flash is built for animation. Java is not. Graphics and Graphics 2D are painful to do any kind of real animation. Performance was never a consideration. If you've tried to write your own sprite manager in java, you know what I mean.
The unfortunate thing is a lot of people think flash and pizaz are everything. These people are usually net illiterate or marketing types that don't care. They particularily don't care about supporting people using text-only browsers (like disabled people, people with dated technology and/or super expensive connectivity).
When I hit a flash site that doesn't have static pages... I leave.
Anyway, the drive to commercialize education and remove the biggest cost (teachers) by introduction of canned programs delivered through technology is systemic. Computers can't answer questions or provide insight that a flesh-and-blood teach can.
This isn't new. In the late-90s there was a similiar study that had shown student's performance in most academics had decreased over the last 10 years. I wish I could remember the paper, or find a link to it, but the premise was that technology in the information age provided access to knowledge, but bypassed the relations, inference, and analytics required to derive or use the knowledge effectively.
One example specific to mathematics was the ability to calculate and/or estimate without the use of a calculator. The article pointed out that 50 years ago, "casting out nines" was a common technique known by students to check multiplication of BIG numbers. Today, virtually NO student comming out of high school has heard of the technique.
Another example specific to "language arts" was that plagerism had increased and the ability of the teacher to detect it had decreased with the introduction of the internet, and specifically the ability to research (via library) that also brought in parallel/peripheral information was compromised. For example, the understanding of a topic by reading through a chapter "doing the research" has been replaced by a Google(TM) and keyword search.
I thought it was kinda funny, that subsequent generations would be "dumber" than the previous.
I've had RedHat7 running in my business for years. Its outside our firewall. Its been rebooted once in the last 2 years. Its never been jacked or hacked.
Conversely, in less that one minute, I plugged my mother-in-laws new computer in via ADSL and it had no less than 2 virus and 1 trojan. Just by connecting it to the wall...
I was surprised that my previous rant about Dan Goldin was flagged as flame-bait... but I want to revisit it.
Goldin in his reign was instrumental in killing NASA. As opposed to lobbying the government and stirring public interest, he became an implement by which NASA became irrelevant as he oversaw slash-and-burn budgetting.
NASA did not recover. I believe all recent failures in the space program are due to Goldin's initiatives.
And this is relevant to the Voyager topic because his policies continue. Its not an argument about funding cuts from the fed - because the fed greases the palm of the lobbiest selling the sexiest product (and lobster dinner.)
NASA today is nothing more than a federal children's edutainment organization. And the nation and the planet will suffer as a result of this. How many technological innovations came out of the space race? These presented REAL value to the corporate crowd. So anyone who thinks that research constitutes tax dollars ill spent - please remove all computers, cd players, cell phones, vcrs, and other subsequent beneficiary gadgets from your homes.
Shutting down the projects is also vile. Open the project up. Give it away to someone who will support it in industry. Or give it up to another space agency (or country that still thinks space exploration is a point of national pride.)
Both Japan and China have expressed their intentions to be on the moon in the immediate future. And they'll do it, because for them, its national pride - not low ball Billshut.
Dan Goldin killed NASA. His legacy of "cheaper, better, faster" led to more FAILURES in space exploration and research than any other administrator.
Seriously... Goldin, master of slash and burn, was the same guy that made wonderous technology decisions too (like get those Unix and Mac boxes outta here.) And the "Test it? Why the heck are we testing it? I don't pay you monkies to design and build broken sh*t."
If you are an astronaught and are reading this note - go find Dan and kick him in the balls. You'll feel better.
10 years of hacked (aka bug fix) code is HARDLY a good starting point for a light weight framework. Here is why... 1- code size has a tendency to grow 2- code complexity (especially with fixes) has a tendency to increase 3- code requirements tend to get lost 4- code knowledge tends to decrease (only developer X understood that bit o' code, and he left 5 years ago) 5- Microsofts internal development policy tends to promote code duplication as opposed to re-use (ergo 100 implementations of a linked list) 6- the software industry has matured 100 fold in the last 10 years (think SEI-CMM, patterns, etc.) 7- I wouldn't hire you either.
didn't work for intel and processor serial numbers - nobody is going to buy into uniquely identifyable hardware (basis for trusted computing)
also - means static IPs for everyting doesn't it
1. all CPUs/NIC have unique ids 2. global registry of CPU/NIC to a person 3. branding of persons with unique ids on forehead 4. implanting of persons with unique id transmiters 5. global registry of person UIDs
Isn't it just a matter of time before someone turns M$ antivirus/antispyware into a transport mechanism for a virus? I think it would be funny...
My personal peeve.. Anything that randomly, spurriously starts scanning files on my computer is killed with extreme prejudice. Anything that hooks into the opening/reading of files is erradicated with abject hostility. I will be uber upset if this crap becomes an integrated part of the OS.
CTVNewsNet, that is pretty much a puppet as it is owned by Bell GlobalMedia, is really playing up the "Apple faces competition from Microsoft and Nokia" angle of this news bite. Not surprising as Bell pushes Nokia. And not atypical of Microsoft FUD to announce vapor hardware/software so the minions can go bashing.
The network killed it once already by constantly re-empting it with crappy reality TV shows and changing the time slot.
Even if the fans pay for it, where would it be broadcast? On the same network that killed it?
Face it - it an age where scientific space exploration is done by throwing crappy robots at a planet and hoping they work if they don't make a crater first - where people can't even turn on the primary communication hardware on a probe that took 7 years to hit Titan - where the most dazzling pictures come from an orbiting telescope that was busted from start to finish - what would you expect?
Slashdot Mirror
Writing a virus takes a fair bit of know-how... the article states he was immature and had a bad family life.
Maybe its just an example of a bored kid doing something with bragging rights.
Immature or not, there was intent and dedication, and if he's smart enough to write and deploy, he was smart enough to know it was wrong.
Before dot bomb we all made tons of cash. We were affluent. We were special. Large numbers of people entered the field. Lots of 6 week courses to make you an instant object oriented programmer.
After dot bomb our salaries plummeted. Large companies figure out ways to make us irrelevant through outsourcing. Our peers undercut and underbid us because any work is better than no work. And if you were an employee, you got shuffled into the consultant column to join the growing number of disposable workers. Consultants are an expense after all to whom you do not owe benefits and the like, unlike an employee that is a liability.
Welcome to being a commodity. We are all interchangeable. My computer science degree is worth as much as a 6 week programming course through DeVry. And my exceptional architecture and design skills are worth less than someone that managed to hide away in a big corporation the last 15 years.
I mean, can we have conjugal visits? Maybe she has a /. account.
Surf some blogs... the move from firewire to usb2 on the latest iPod isn't just an attempt to be more compatible with Wintel. Less circuitry is cheaper.
Thanks for your sarcasm. Its truly unfounded. The fact that you can buy a computer and/or OS to be obsoleted withint a couple months with no free upgrade is piss poor customer service. I also know for 'fact' that many people who invested heavily in the old architecture were confounded by the move to usb and firewire (the latter of which is also being dropped.) SCSI hardware was usually $100 more than IDE or USB ware, so shelling out $300 for some funky adapter that doesn't give you the throughput (USB 10mbps) of ultra SCSI for subsequent versions of an OS that won't fully support any of it kinda explains the reason why the foothold that Apple had in professional DV disappeared.
This is one of my biggest Apple peaves...
/w high performance SCSI externals for DV that the new hardware has no SCSI support.
You buy a computer with (example) 10.1...
Two weeks later 10.2 is here! with essential bug fixes.
And you need to shell out another $80 bucks for it.
It's almost as funny as telling a guy who sunk $20k into Apple hardware
But hey, I can plug in an iPod.
Doesn't everyone know that formal education kills imagination?
No... Java is not the answer.
I am anti-flash too - but the same comlpaint can be made against Java...
Flash stuff is big - big download - therefor slow - and fixed size - and usually fixed color (thousands).
Guess what. Applets that do animation are big - slow - fixed size! Not only that, flash is built for animation. Java is not. Graphics and Graphics 2D are painful to do any kind of real animation. Performance was never a consideration. If you've tried to write your own sprite manager in java, you know what I mean.
The unfortunate thing is a lot of people think flash and pizaz are everything. These people are usually net illiterate or marketing types that don't care. They particularily don't care about supporting people using text-only browsers (like disabled people, people with dated technology and/or super expensive connectivity).
When I hit a flash site that doesn't have static pages... I leave.
Anyway, the drive to commercialize education and remove the biggest cost (teachers) by introduction of canned programs delivered through technology is systemic. Computers can't answer questions or provide insight that a flesh-and-blood teach can.
This isn't new. In the late-90s there was a similiar study that had shown student's performance in most academics had decreased over the last 10 years. I wish I could remember the paper, or find a link to it, but the premise was that technology in the information age provided access to knowledge, but bypassed the relations, inference, and analytics required to derive or use the knowledge effectively.
One example specific to mathematics was the ability to calculate and/or estimate without the use of a calculator. The article pointed out that 50 years ago, "casting out nines" was a common technique known by students to check multiplication of BIG numbers. Today, virtually NO student comming out of high school has heard of the technique.
Another example specific to "language arts" was that plagerism had increased and the ability of the teacher to detect it had decreased with the introduction of the internet, and specifically the ability to research (via library) that also brought in parallel/peripheral information was compromised. For example, the understanding of a topic by reading through a chapter "doing the research" has been replaced by a Google(TM) and keyword search.
I thought it was kinda funny, that subsequent generations would be "dumber" than the previous.
But can I play LSL with this innovation? Even with the slim form factor I think it will chafe.
Ok seriously, the testimonials entered by people using amazon are nothing new, and letting amazon patent testimonials is just silly.
Comb Over!
Patenting linking to peoples blogs is like patenting the comb-over.
I've had RedHat7 running in my business for years. Its outside our firewall. Its been rebooted once in the last 2 years. Its never been jacked or hacked.
Conversely, in less that one minute, I plugged my mother-in-laws new computer in via ADSL and it had no less than 2 virus and 1 trojan. Just by connecting it to the wall...
Holy crap an O-Zone reference.
Wow.
1) the right people
2) a needed product
3) thrifty spending
I never would'a thunk it. Many start-ups have excatly that - and fail - because of underfunding when it comes time to market.
These 3 things don't make critical mass. 2/3 of any budget unfortunately goes into promotions.
I was surprised that my previous rant about Dan Goldin was flagged as flame-bait... but I want to revisit it.
Goldin in his reign was instrumental in killing NASA. As opposed to lobbying the government and stirring public interest, he became an implement by which NASA became irrelevant as he oversaw slash-and-burn budgetting.
NASA did not recover. I believe all recent failures in the space program are due to Goldin's initiatives.
And this is relevant to the Voyager topic because his policies continue. Its not an argument about funding cuts from the fed - because the fed greases the palm of the lobbiest selling the sexiest product (and lobster dinner.)
NASA today is nothing more than a federal children's edutainment organization. And the nation and the planet will suffer as a result of this. How many technological innovations came out of the space race? These presented REAL value to the corporate crowd. So anyone who thinks that research constitutes tax dollars ill spent - please remove all computers, cd players, cell phones, vcrs, and other subsequent beneficiary gadgets from your homes.
Shutting down the projects is also vile. Open the project up. Give it away to someone who will support it in industry. Or give it up to another space agency (or country that still thinks space exploration is a point of national pride.)
Thanks for the rating Dan.
Both Japan and China have expressed their intentions to be on the moon in the immediate future. And they'll do it, because for them, its national pride - not low ball Billshut.
Dan Goldin killed NASA. His legacy of "cheaper, better, faster" led to more FAILURES in space exploration and research than any other administrator.
Seriously... Goldin, master of slash and burn, was the same guy that made wonderous technology decisions too (like get those Unix and Mac boxes outta here.) And the "Test it? Why the heck are we testing it? I don't pay you monkies to design and build broken sh*t."
If you are an astronaught and are reading this note - go find Dan and kick him in the balls. You'll feel better.
10 years of hacked (aka bug fix) code is HARDLY a good starting point for a light weight framework. Here is why...
1- code size has a tendency to grow
2- code complexity (especially with fixes) has a tendency to increase
3- code requirements tend to get lost
4- code knowledge tends to decrease (only developer X understood that bit o' code, and he left 5 years ago)
5- Microsofts internal development policy tends to promote code duplication as opposed to re-use (ergo 100 implementations of a linked list)
6- the software industry has matured 100 fold in the last 10 years (think SEI-CMM, patterns, etc.)
7- I wouldn't hire you either.
Well I have to disagree here. I have a Mac Cube. The only discernable sound is putting a cd/dvd in and listening to the head seek.
didn't work for intel and processor serial numbers - nobody is going to buy into uniquely identifyable hardware (basis for trusted computing)
also - means static IPs for everyting doesn't it
1. all CPUs/NIC have unique ids
2. global registry of CPU/NIC to a person
3. branding of persons with unique ids on forehead
4. implanting of persons with unique id transmiters
5. global registry of person UIDs
its all good
Isn't it just a matter of time before someone turns M$ antivirus/antispyware into a transport mechanism for a virus? I think it would be funny...
My personal peeve.. Anything that randomly, spurriously starts scanning files on my computer is killed with extreme prejudice. Anything that hooks into the opening/reading of files is erradicated with abject hostility. I will be uber upset if this crap becomes an integrated part of the OS.
CTVNewsNet, that is pretty much a puppet as it is owned by Bell GlobalMedia, is really playing up the "Apple faces competition from Microsoft and Nokia" angle of this news bite. Not surprising as Bell pushes Nokia. And not atypical of Microsoft FUD to announce vapor hardware/software so the minions can go bashing.
MM
The network killed it once already by constantly re-empting it with crappy reality TV shows and changing the time slot.
Even if the fans pay for it, where would it be broadcast? On the same network that killed it?
Face it - it an age where scientific space exploration is done by throwing crappy robots at a planet and hoping they work if they don't make a crater first - where people can't even turn on the primary communication hardware on a probe that took 7 years to hit Titan - where the most dazzling pictures come from an orbiting telescope that was busted from start to finish - what would you expect?