I'm sure that (now) there is adequate testing. But back in the day, there wasn't. The Pinto thing happened maybe 35 years ago, and you may not be old enough to remember it. Btw, I also work for a car company.
Way too old? Bullshit. I take it you subscribe to the asinine belief that anyone who's more than 30 is no longer sufficiently mentally flexible to cut code. So what have i been doing for the last 25 years?
Come a bit closer, sonny, so I can hit you over the head with my copy of 'Structured FORTRAN'.
The specific car that prompted all this was, iirc, the Ford Pinto. They used to explode into a ball of flame if they were rear-ended. This was _not_ discovered by engineers carrying out due diligence until there were a lot of them already out on the roads (and probably it was only discovered at all because a few of them had already burst into flames). At this point, the accountants said, 'Fuck it. It's cheaper to pay out a few grieving families than it is to recall all those Pintos and fix them up so they're safe.' So yeah, it was the accountants, but the designers of the car had not done adequate (any?) safety testing.
The problem with UML and other formal specification languages is that either they aren't sufficiently powerful to express complex problems, or they have bugs (or both). I don't think any of us need to worry too much.
The reason why this hasn't happened is simple. The rentiers cannot derive a passive income stream from your passive solar heating, whereas they make a shitload of money selling you heating oil, natural gas, electricity,...
The oil and coal that we currently burn so much of is algae, trees, etc, that did exactly this, very efficiently, I-forget-how-many millions of years ago. We're just using up fossil solar energy (faster than it's being replaced).
This isn't actually _quite_ true. We only have to drink the saline crap in the Murray, full of toxic chemicals that those fuckers upstream growing rice and cotton have thrown in, during the summer. In winter, the water's still very hard, but it comes from local reservoirs.
There's an analogous process with brewing. That's why lagers and ales taste different, because lagers ferment at a much lower temperature, and consequently much slower, producing different fermentation products (except for alcohol, of course. That's always the same). It's also why most commercial bread (risen far too fast) is tasteless and lacks structure.
Yes it is. It costs me less than $A1 per litre, and that's for _everything_ - malts, yeast, hops, heat for boiling the wort, stuff to sanitise containers,...
The cheapest (and, not coincidentally, the nastiest) beer I can buy is Fosters, which costs at least $A25 per slab (about 9 litres), which works out to nearly $A3 per litre. Decent beer (Cooper's Sparkling Ale, eg) costs nearly twice that much, and (ahem) my homebrew is generally better than Cooper's Ale.
I got really sick of washing bottles, too. These days I just keg it. There's an initial expense for a tap, regulator, and some kegs, and an occassional expense refilling the CO2 cylinder, and you have to drill a few holes in your beer fridge, but it's worth it.
You just have to brew beer styles that work with your local water, although, in my experience, the effect of the water on the final product is overstated. If you have hard water, you just brew a Burton-on Trent style pale ale. With softer water, you could try your hand at a Bohemian style Pilsner. However, I live in Adelaide, which has probably the hardest water in the world, and I just make what I feel like. It all turns out OK.
Yeah, Bavaria is quite nice (like a German Pils) and Grolsch is pretty good, but Heineken is horrid. It's way too sweet and nowhere near hoppy enough for my taste.
I just read an interesting news item in a GIS trade comic I subscribe to (www.positionmag.com.au). Apparently NASA is closing its Earth Observation section to focus on President Bush's priorities, including a amnned mission to Mars. To quote the article: "The move reduces the ability of the agency to play a role in the climate change debate".
I finally understand why Bush is suddenly taking an interest in space exploration. Damn, he's got some smart (but evil) people working for him.
You forgot to add that he looks like a date-rapist as well.
I _never_ trust people who are as well-tanned as Darl. There's something inherently wrong about a bloke who obviously spends about 3 hours a day in a solarium.
Unfortunately most people _aren't_ bright enough to recognise astroturf. However, it's unlikely to be an issue in this case. I'd bet quids this proposed ProSco website will turn out to be vapourware.
When I was at university, we were specifcally told _not_ to write anything like:
main() { while (1) fork(); }
It would result in suspension of the offender's account for about 3 years (the exact same 3 years you were planning on spending at university to complete your CS degree).
Slashdot Mirror
That's hypERarsehole to you, pal.
I'm sure that (now) there is adequate testing. But back in the day, there wasn't. The Pinto thing happened maybe 35 years ago, and you may not be old enough to remember it. Btw, I also work for a car company.
Way too old? Bullshit. I take it you subscribe to the asinine belief that anyone who's more than 30 is no longer sufficiently mentally flexible to cut code. So what have i been doing for the last 25 years?
Come a bit closer, sonny, so I can hit you over the head with my copy of 'Structured FORTRAN'.
Yep. The car was fucked.
The specific car that prompted all this was, iirc, the Ford Pinto. They used to explode into a ball of flame if they were rear-ended. This was _not_ discovered by engineers carrying out due diligence until there were a lot of them already out on the roads (and probably it was only discovered at all because a few of them had already burst into flames). At this point, the accountants said, 'Fuck it. It's cheaper to pay out a few grieving families than it is to recall all those Pintos and fix them up so they're safe.' So yeah, it was the accountants, but the designers of the car had not done adequate (any?) safety testing.
No, it was the lawyers. Largely prompted by Ralph Nader, iirc. Although the problems were the fault of accountants as much as engineers.
My son had a Corolla which was rooted (in the Australian sense). It cost him $A250, and was held together with gaffer tape and octopus straps.
So ... who's growing the food for this nation of Java programmers?
The problem with UML and other formal specification languages is that either they aren't sufficiently powerful to express complex problems, or they have bugs (or both). I don't think any of us need to worry too much.
"Pub" comes from "public house". As opposed to a private house.
The reason why this hasn't happened is simple. The rentiers cannot derive a passive income stream from your passive solar heating, whereas they make a shitload of money selling you heating oil, natural gas, electricity, ...
The oil and coal that we currently burn so much of is algae, trees, etc, that did exactly this, very efficiently, I-forget-how-many millions of years ago. We're just using up fossil solar energy (faster than it's being replaced).
Yeah, the simple things are best.
This isn't actually _quite_ true. We only have to drink the saline crap in the Murray, full of toxic chemicals that those fuckers upstream growing rice and cotton have thrown in, during the summer. In winter, the water's still very hard, but it comes from local reservoirs.
There's an analogous process with brewing. That's why lagers and ales taste different, because lagers ferment at a much lower temperature, and consequently much slower, producing different fermentation products (except for alcohol, of course. That's always the same). It's also why most commercial bread (risen far too fast) is tasteless and lacks structure.
Yes it is. It costs me less than $A1 per litre, and that's for _everything_ - malts, yeast, hops, heat for boiling the wort, stuff to sanitise containers, ...
The cheapest (and, not coincidentally, the nastiest) beer I can buy is Fosters, which costs at least $A25 per slab (about 9 litres), which works out to nearly $A3 per litre. Decent beer (Cooper's Sparkling Ale, eg) costs nearly twice that much, and (ahem) my homebrew is generally better than Cooper's Ale.
I got really sick of washing bottles, too. These days I just keg it. There's an initial expense for a tap, regulator, and some kegs, and an occassional expense refilling the CO2 cylinder, and you have to drill a few holes in your beer fridge, but it's worth it.
You just have to brew beer styles that work with your local water, although, in my experience, the effect of the water on the final product is overstated. If you have hard water, you just brew a Burton-on Trent style pale ale. With softer water, you could try your hand at a Bohemian style Pilsner. However, I live in Adelaide, which has probably the hardest water in the world, and I just make what I feel like. It all turns out OK.
Yeah, Bavaria is quite nice (like a German Pils) and Grolsch is pretty good, but Heineken is horrid. It's way too sweet and nowhere near hoppy enough for my taste.
I just read an interesting news item in a GIS trade comic I subscribe to (www.positionmag.com.au). Apparently NASA is closing its Earth Observation section to focus on President Bush's priorities, including a amnned mission to Mars. To quote the article: "The move reduces the ability of the agency to play a role in the climate change debate".
I finally understand why Bush is suddenly taking an interest in space exploration. Damn, he's got some smart (but evil) people working for him.
You forgot to add that he looks like a date-rapist as well.
I _never_ trust people who are as well-tanned as Darl. There's something inherently wrong about a bloke who obviously spends about 3 hours a day in a solarium.
Unfortunately most people _aren't_ bright enough to recognise astroturf. However, it's unlikely to be an issue in this case. I'd bet quids this proposed ProSco website will turn out to be vapourware.
When I was at university, we were specifcally told _not_ to write anything like:
main() { while (1) fork(); }
It would result in suspension of the offender's account for about 3 years (the exact same 3 years you were planning on spending at university to complete your CS degree).
This reminds me of a joke (which may only be accessable to English and Australian people).
Q. What's the naval equivalent of wine, women and song?
A. Rum, bum and gramophone records.
Boom, boom!
It's a Damn Fine Book. I just recently purchased a copy, and I'm glad I did.