If you remove the pilot, the dynamic performance of the aircraft is limited only by the airframe.
Which points to the possibility that alleged performance of things like UFOs (if you believe in them) are explained by having an AI at the controls. Heck, you could have smaller sized robots (big enough to get enviromental samples and get about, but small enough to save weight)
Probably the next big cultural change is where AI is a fact of Life.
Or.. what if someone hack's them... compare the amount of hacking done to.gov sites compared to the amount of breakins in.gov buildings:)
Well you just need to make sure your wireless protocols are secure. Or else you could get haxored and become a target of your own equipment. It is much harder to haxor a human pilot.
This gets into the whole sticky situation of the ethics that you program into an AI. I can see lots of problems if you program in something like the "Survival of the fittest". Humans are sometimes not very fit. Suddenly some version of Asimovs Laws of Robotics, and other versions of Ethical systems become very relevant.
I think that the Unmanned tanks are going to require a substantial advance in AI. The best research along the line of computer controlled vehicles is probably covered in this Slash article about the Man vs Machine Challenge Web Site, where the research challeng is to have an trully independent AI controlled Formula One Race Car win a Formula One Race. That is something that is going to be difficult on any day. But the research of learning to handle such a turbulent environment would be usefull for things like tanks that are linked to terrain.
The combat problem of aircraft is actually a simpler problem in some regards, because generally everything can be better mapped to a certain degree. Long range sensors give an added edge as well.
The combat problem with a tank involves far more as far as obstacles goes, plus the problem of identifying friend or foe in dealing with combatents. With aircraft this is dealt with by certain automated communications protocols. This is far harder to do on the ground. How do you identity civilians, etc?
Re:I dont find this amusing at all.
on
Hi-Tech Repo Man
·
· Score: 2
Aside from the troll aspects of the p[ost, I know of a number of people in different parts of the country who had a decent life, then all the yuppies (or whatever you call them these days) moved in and messed it up. Often all the locals are screwed over and forced to move out before the yuppies market crashes.
I have seen it in a number of areas of the country. Heck even in SF, where you can have studio apartment for thousands per month. Shear insanity. talk about herd mentality (we are all individuals!)
The children were born following a technique called ooplasmic transfer. This involves taking some of the contents of the donor cell and injecting it into the egg cell of a woman with
infertility problems.
So I guess this means that gene splicing, etc was NOT involved. And what they did was to add mitochonria from one person into the cells of another.
Sort of similar to replacing whole chromosomes, though that could be the next step.
Sort of like hacking code by replacing whole sections of code. This should be safe, as far as the children goes.
But the can of worms it opens...
I do not mind it by itself, it is just that I do not know of any agency that I would feel comfortable in trusting with this sort of thing.
That, ultimately, is the problem. Who do you trust?
Maryland legislators recognized quickly why exempting Open Source software from the mandated warranties made sense, Webbink says. "How do you impose a warranty on some hacker who's in Romania, written a piece of the code, and given it away for free?"
So that is one angle.
I am more concerned about the "self-help" section which seems to allow software companies to shut down software if the user doesn't pay the license fee by a deadline. But Ianal, etc.
With increasing levels of complexity you get increasing levels of functionality. You also get more things that break. You have to make sure that the underpinningsa are set correctly. When they are not, then watch out.
[Insert snide comment here] Take a look at that pinnacle of Object Oriented Programming, Microsoft Office
That cheap shot aside, The ramp up to a level of truly competent understanding is much longer than anticipated. The problem is that often OOP can give the appearance of competancy to those not in the know, but you still have the same problems that you had before, that can be much more difficult to find, if you are not expert
There is this bit from the article that no-one has commented on yet:
It will be interesting to see how the RIAA reacts [if this laws passes], either by claiming that Denmark violates international law, or by trying to get.dk banned altogether, or both. Perhaps they will lobby to change the law in such a fashion that access to file sharing and MP3 sites / networks must be forbidden for foreigners.
Maybe the RIAA will advocate the US declare war on Denmark for threatening the dominance of american culture. Or try to ban the internet because it is such a threat to their way of life (greed)
In general, I like the fact that more and more major artisits are starting to side with the Napster side of the argument, seeing how the major labels are abusing the artists they say they are protecting.
Apparently the car is done in cooperation with Rinspeed - [English page here] They have a frames menu, but the Advantige R is there under the concept cars, with far more detail (with specs!) than in the original story.
The Concept car page is here (broken out of the frame).
If you look at where the money is, you can see that many monied interests wanted to improve things for themselves, often with no regard for others [I am positively shocked by this idea! Aren't You? Say it isn't so!]
Take a look at this summary of Psychology and Industrial Efficiency by Hugo Münsterberg (1913). As Münsterberg himself put it: 'We ask how we can find the men whose mental qualities make them best fitted for the work which they have to do; secondly, under what psychological conditions we can secure the greatest and most satisfactory output of work from every man; and finally, how we can produce most completely the influences on human minds which are desired in the interest of business.' This is not unusual for that period.
In a modern context we have the example of the microserfs and Microdroids, as seen here
Even during the DotCom Craze we have examples of the tremdous loyalty seen at one time at Amazon.com, as documented on slash here (Original site here) Another example are the Romans who prosecuted anyone who who not do pagan sacrifice for the cult of the Emperor (the state). This was bad news for the Christians for a while.
Bottom line, the cult of the current belief systems, as expressed by the dominant powers, hates anyone who would or could be a threat to them. This applies to Romans, business men, the Spanish Inquisition, politicians, and for that matter whatever clique of individuals that has control in an area.
Of course taking this too far, what we do is discredit ideals like friendship and loyalty. Who deserves your loyalty and friendship, ever? Who indeed?
To only see the mechanism in the thing you love to hate most is small minded indeed.
Unfortunately, we have to stop this discussion now. We've been Godwinned!
LOL! I had completely forgotten about that. That's a riot.
Question is, of course, is if the basics of propoganda, as detailed above, are in fact relevant when talking about Microsoft.
Or do we automatically turn a blind eye to the abuse if it bears some resemblance to those tried and true historical examples?
The trap here is that if we turn a blind eye, then we permit the abuse we abhore happen again. But of course, we can over-react.
The best reaction is to determine the truth, and recognize that some people could use those techniques one way or another, especially if their intent is to destroy.
As seen here, and here and many other places, the basic techniques is to overcome your enemy by constantly redefining the terms used to describe them.
For example, the original purposes of the mental health industry were to help government and big business control populations and to control markets. The classic historical example of this is Nazi Germany.
After the war, many companies wanted to make use of the techniques to improve their markets, politicians wanted to advance their causes etc, all taking a page or two for the Nazi play book. But they did not want the stench of the association.
Now we all know that these are honorable men, and that these end goals of control and manipulation have been set aside by the vast majority of governments and organizations around the world.
But here and there we see a hint of the old technique. You redefine the word. You include just enough of the truth, and twist it with a lie, that it requires a sophisticated understanding to spot what is wrong.
to quote Hitler (full chapter here): given variously as (depending on translation:"... all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan." (or alternatively) "... an effective propaganda has to limit itself to just a few points and must keep repeating them in the form of catch phrases for as long as it takes to have ascertained that even the very last person understands under these words what one wants him to understand." The full chapter makes fascinating reading, especially when comparing it to MS Marketing FUD and tactics.
Ultimately a lie *will* backfire, however, because people see through it and hate you for it. It may take a while, a long time.
Therefore the best PR campiagn is not based in lies, but is uses real truths.
But the MS marketroids resort to twisting and distorting the facts
Let me tell you that the biggest problem in corporate development today isn't whether or not people understand J2EE, but whether they understand distributed idioms and business.
I agree. The biggest problem is programmers who have NO understand on business. Programmers who also have extensive business/accounting/etc expertise are as rare as hen's teeth. (But I do know a couple). They are also way undervalued.
This gets to be the equivalent of a non-coder technology manager who has picked up a book on javascript, and has written something simple in a afternoon. Who then says that there is nothing to javascript, and way can't you use javascript to create this intricate ssetup for me?
A comprehensive understanding of the programming problem is vital to the development of a competent programming solution. To the extent that you do not have the the problem well defined, the more time you will spend debugging, etc.
this is well illustrated by this webpage, which tells the story of a guy who wrote a memory management tool. the only bugs in the program were a handful of typos. It was literally perfection otherwise. He obviously had done all of his debugging on papaer in the first place.
The flip side on this is in large corporate enviroments where people asking for reports, etc do not understand the nature of the data in the first place, and so as for simple things that are hideously difficult, or which are
confused in the first place.
Of course, Ford doesn't advertise that their cars practically run themselves, with no operator needed. Nor do they include a "Getting Started" guide that gives the sense that nothing more is needed than the pointy, clicky, hit FINISH and it's running method. They're allowing their "certified" people to be churned out after a week of rote-cramming and little-to-no practical experience furthered that image. So many MCSEs have proved to be so obviously clueless that the idea that NT can be competently adminned by someone with a clue deficiency.
In this context, here is this bit of classic humor, as they say, "found on the Net"
WHAT IF PEOPLE BOUGHT CARS LIKE THEY BOUGHT COMPUTERS?
General Motors doesn't have a "help line" for people who don't know how to drive, because people don't buy cars like they buy computers -- but imagine if
they did . . .
HELPLINE: "General Motors Helpline, how can I help you?"
CUSTOMER: "I got in my car and closed the door, and nothing happened!"
HELPLINE: "Did you put the key in the ignition slot and turn it?"
CUSTOMER: "What's an ignition?"
HELPLINE: "It's a starter motor that draws current from your battery and turns over the engine."
CUSTOMER: "Ignition? Motor? Battery? Engine? How come I have to know all of these technical terms just to use my car?"
HELPLINE: "General Motors Helpline, how can I help you?"
CUSTOMER: "My car ran fine for a week, and now it won't go anywhere!"
HELPLINE: "Is the gas tank empty?"
CUSTOMER: "Huh? How do I know?"
HELPLINE: "There's a little gauge on the front panel, with a needle, and markings from 'E' to 'F.' Where is the needle pointing?"
CUSTOMER: "It's pointing to 'E.' What does that mean?"
HELPLINE: "It means that you have to visit a gasoline vendor, and purchase some more gasoline. You can install it yourself, or pay the vendor to install it for
you."
CUSTOMER: "What!? I paid $12,000 for this car! Now you tell me that I have to keep buying more components? I want a car that comes with everything built
in!"
HELPLINE: "General Motors Helpline, how can I help you?"
CUSTOMER: "Hi! I just bought my first car, and I chose your car because it has automatic transmission, cruise control, power steering, power brakes, and
power door locks."
HELPLINE: "Thanks for buying our car. How can I help you?"
CUSTOMER: "How do I work it?"
HELPLINE: "Do you know how to drive?"
CUSTOMER: "Do I know how to what?"
HELPLINE: "Do you know how to drive?"
CUSTOMER: "I'm not a technical person! I just want to go places in my car!"
So the best option is to have a report that is generated for web display, and have a second one for download in PDF or whatever for printing.
Just a quick aside, there is also the matter of just how page breaks are generated. These are usually part of the printer driver, and there hooks in the word processor, etc for trigger the printer driver code. This was never set up, as far as I know, in HTML. This is a capability that would have to be intergrated via a plugin or something into the browser itself. Now add this to multiple browsers, etc. and you have lots of problems.
I supposed you could generate an activex thing to generate a page break that would get auto loaded into IE, and have it fire when there is a specific tag such as [pgbrk] or similar.
You would also have to integrate specified type sizes so that it still prints correctly even if the user has the parameter to view the browser type set to extra large.
So that is another angle, because then you could set up custom reports using JDBC, Interdev, or similar to pull info from the database. You would just need to generate something that would create a custom tag for the web page
I must be missing something. I would have thought that via perl, or what every that you could generate whatever reports you needed from a data base to your web browser. Once in your browser you could print out as needed. But this requires coding, which you have said you are not partial to.
Now there are a number of products where you could generate a report for a database with HTML tags inserted in the correct local, then print to a text file. snd a separate one for printing. This essentially generates HTML pages for you as you need. All it becomes is a specialized report, that can be uploaded as needed.
So the best option is to have a report that is generated for web display, and have a second one for download in PDF or whatever for printing.
Let's face it, depending on the database, custom reports etc have been where a lot of database analysts and programmers have made the big bucks for a very long time. While you can get away wit simple reports in something like ms access, in the long run your are going to have to get someone who has the knowledge and experience to put it together right.
When I used to do tech support for a consumer database company, I ran into this all the time - Customers wanting to do sometimes complicated things with only a minute or two of effort. Add in some anomolies because the database was not normalised correctly, and you get a bloody mess. It was not so much the system, as it was getting the query right (Alphabetized by state, then town, then family name, and filtering those custers using master card for purchase over 250$ during the month of december, and who still owe us money as of the end of the preceding month)
Depending on the setup, the query could be trivial or a nuisance.
So, for the first six months I can't get internet-based Matrix games on my PS2 or GameCube? So what? that still gives me a year or two for the
internet connectivity to become physically available for each of the consoles...
Time for an Open Source Internet play clone - with a distributed system for the modules/rooms/levels/etc - so that this becomes really surreal.
"We had five 500-pound fat guys showing up at the smorgasbord and stuffing themselves all day," Mark R. Goldston, the chief executive of NetZero. He said 12 percent of NetZero's users accounted for 53 percent of its network costs. Cutting back their use, or getting them to find another service provider altogether, will save the company $20 million to $40 million a year.
Of course, I have not seen many people say much about this. This is the problem behind the thing all along. You get users who know how to abuse the system. It is like a water well where everyone can use the water. it is fine until sompeople start to hog as much as they can.
The traditional location of the Garden Of Eden is souteastern Iraq. Archeology bears this out, at least to the degree that it used to be a fertile and lush area. Don't look now, but it has been a desert for a long time. The natural result of typical human behavior is the creation of a desert.
May 6, 2001 BayFF Featuring 7 Speakers on Censorware
Panel Will Examine Issues Surrounding Internet Blocking in Schools and Libraries, and Community Response
This event is sponsored by: Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco Public Library, James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center, Friends and Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library, Online Policy Group, and Mark Leno, Member of Board of Supervisors, San Francisco.
So this is not a hearing by anyone, but it is a panel discussion. Maybe it is something that could be taped for PBS or something. No info on this angle though.
How can you gain experience if all jobs require you to have had prior work experience?
As a rule of thumb, it usuallu takes 5 to ten years to get enough experience and expertise at something to be good enough that someone would want to hire you for a skilled position. This includes related experience, and all of the school of hard knocks stuff. This works out to be about 10,000 hours of screwing around with something (40hr.wk X 50 weeks/year X 5 years) You can short cut this to some degree by being talented, or putting in an awful lot of hard work, more hours per week. This is not restricted to formal schooling
Note: Prior Experience with related stuff will count against this. Also, hours daydreaming, watching tv shows, and other brain fart class activities do not count. There is an awful lot of learning time that gets wasted, instead of being really focussed and picking something apart.
(I would love to see a graph of learning rate plotted against IQ sometime. I wonder where the point is where someone learns 2 or 3x faster than a normal person.)
Here is a possible plan of attack:
At age eight to ten, really get into games, get really good at them
At age twelve or so, get bored with just playing the games. Pick up a book to figure out how to add levels to the games you do play (such as doom, quake, or whatever) These certainly used to be availble, but things change(?)
by age 13, start getting familiar with the inside of your machine, or maybe with an old throw-away machine, you might do this if you wanted to install upgrades into your box
By age 14, get into messing with the game engine. This is certainly available for a number of games. Use this to enhance your games.
by age 15 start getting into somekind of programming so you can start doing your own stuff, especially building more exotic addons for your favorite game.
By 17, actuallly build something that runs somehow.
The order is somewhat arbitrary, and shows how you could get several thousand of hours of related experience while being a teenager. Y'know spending maybe 20+ hours/week messing with the stuff. And you have a portfolio that has been debugged with the help of all your friends.
Now if you do this while in college, you would have to put in more time while doing classes at the same time. This could get intense as you could be putting in 80 hr weeks (courses, course work, game work, design) on top of trying to make money, and socialize. (This may be why some geeks have not developed all of their social skills.)
Now If you are older, you'll have to fit this in while indulging in this thing called "having a life", because the earlier plans take advantadge of your free time as a teenager to get things rocketing. Later on, this becomes more difficult, and it becomes far more difficult to find 10 or 20 or 30 free hours in a week to get things rolling. To get the requisite 5 to 10 thousand hours of practical experience will take longer if your are devoting only 5 or 10 hours per week. It is easier if you have a job in a related field, even if it is something like a repair shop at "Computer Jungle" or whatever the local shop is.
Since some file systems fits some purposes better than other file systems, and other file systems fits other purposes better than some file systems, what criterias do you have to consider when selecting a file system from another?
Some basic info and a couple of links for folks:
file system - basic defition -the general name given to the logical structures and software routines used to control access to the storage on a hard disk system. Operating systems use different ways of organizing and controlling access to data on the hard disk, and this choice is basically independent of the specific hardware being used--the same hard disk can be arranged in many different ways, and even multiple ways in different areas of the same disk.
Journaled file system - Basic definition (as seen here)
A file system in which the hard disk maintains data integrity in the event of a system crash or if the system is otherwise halted abnormally. The journaled file system (JFS) maintains a log, or journal, of what activity has taken place in the main data areas of the disk; if a crash occurs, any lost data can be recreated because updates to the metadata in directories and bit maps have been written to a serial log. The JFS not only returns the data to the pre-crash configuration but also recovers unsaved data and stores it in the location it would have been stored in if the system had not been unexpectedly interrupted.
IBMs JFS webpage on their system, along with links for for downloads and turtorials online,etc
There is an awfull lot of info at the SGI site. Just poke around.
As far as the question about how to choose file systems, that is often a matter of what the OS will let you get away with, and your needs. Using FAT 16 is recommended if you need to maintain compatibility with MSDOS, for example. Usually, this is something like if you have a multi boot scenario, and which OSen can mount which partitions with which partitions. MS is notoriously picky in this regard, with a "My way or the Highway approach". For example, if you have a single hard drive hooked up to your computer for configuration purposes, You cannot just create anextended partition unless that drive is a salve with another master. If you want to create just an extended partition it will not permit, and tell you that you can only create a primary dos partition instead.
Slashdot Mirror
Well it is a bit of a niche market.
But every thing considered, not bad at all.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
Which points to the possibility that alleged performance of things like UFOs (if you believe in them) are explained by having an AI at the controls. Heck, you could have smaller sized robots (big enough to get enviromental samples and get about, but small enough to save weight)
Probably the next big cultural change is where AI is a fact of Life.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
Well you just need to make sure your wireless protocols are secure. Or else you could get haxored and become a target of your own equipment. It is much harder to haxor a human pilot.
This gets into the whole sticky situation of the ethics that you program into an AI. I can see lots of problems if you program in something like the "Survival of the fittest". Humans are sometimes not very fit. Suddenly some version of Asimovs Laws of Robotics, and other versions of Ethical systems become very relevant.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
The combat problem of aircraft is actually a simpler problem in some regards, because generally everything can be better mapped to a certain degree. Long range sensors give an added edge as well.
The combat problem with a tank involves far more as far as obstacles goes, plus the problem of identifying friend or foe in dealing with combatents. With aircraft this is dealt with by certain automated communications protocols. This is far harder to do on the ground. How do you identity civilians, etc?
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
I have seen it in a number of areas of the country. Heck even in SF, where you can have studio apartment for thousands per month. Shear insanity. talk about herd mentality (we are all individuals!)
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
I can imagine the bug reports. But how do you learn to code into something like that?
"the system was allright, but the Data processing subsystem had a tendency to crash after sex." "It's as designed - mark as will not fix"
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
So I guess this means that gene splicing, etc was NOT involved. And what they did was to add mitochonria from one person into the cells of another.
Sort of similar to replacing whole chromosomes, though that could be the next step.
Sort of like hacking code by replacing whole sections of code. This should be safe, as far as the children goes.
But the can of worms it opens...
I do not mind it by itself, it is just that I do not know of any agency that I would feel comfortable in trusting with this sort of thing.
That, ultimately, is the problem. Who do you trust?
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
I am more concerned about the "self-help" section which seems to allow software companies to shut down software if the user doesn't pay the license fee by a deadline. But Ianal, etc.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
[Insert snide comment here] Take a look at that pinnacle of Object Oriented Programming, Microsoft Office
That cheap shot aside, The ramp up to a level of truly competent understanding is much longer than anticipated. The problem is that often OOP can give the appearance of competancy to those not in the know, but you still have the same problems that you had before, that can be much more difficult to find, if you are not expert
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
It will be interesting to see how the RIAA reacts [if this laws passes], either by claiming that Denmark violates international law, or by trying to get .dk banned altogether, or both. Perhaps they will lobby to change the law in such a fashion that access to file sharing and MP3 sites / networks must be forbidden for foreigners.
Maybe the RIAA will advocate the US declare war on Denmark for threatening the dominance of american culture. Or try to ban the internet because it is such a threat to their way of life (greed)
In general, I like the fact that more and more major artisits are starting to side with the Napster side of the argument, seeing how the major labels are abusing the artists they say they are protecting.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
The Concept car page is here (broken out of the frame).
Photos too. very much worth checking out.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
If you look at where the money is, you can see that many monied interests wanted to improve things for themselves, often with no regard for others [I am positively shocked by this idea! Aren't You? Say it isn't so!]
Take a look at this summary of Psychology and Industrial Efficiency by Hugo Münsterberg (1913). As Münsterberg himself put it: 'We ask how we can find the men whose mental qualities make them best fitted for the work which they have to do; secondly, under what psychological conditions we can secure the greatest and most satisfactory output of work from every man; and finally, how we can produce most completely the influences on human minds which are desired in the interest of business.' This is not unusual for that period.
In a modern context we have the example of the microserfs and Microdroids, as seen here
Even during the DotCom Craze we have examples of the tremdous loyalty seen at one time at Amazon.com, as documented on slash here (Original site here) Another example are the Romans who prosecuted anyone who who not do pagan sacrifice for the cult of the Emperor (the state). This was bad news for the Christians for a while.
Bottom line, the cult of the current belief systems, as expressed by the dominant powers, hates anyone who would or could be a threat to them. This applies to Romans, business men, the Spanish Inquisition, politicians, and for that matter whatever clique of individuals that has control in an area.
Of course taking this too far, what we do is discredit ideals like friendship and loyalty. Who deserves your loyalty and friendship, ever? Who indeed?
To only see the mechanism in the thing you love to hate most is small minded indeed.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
LOL! I had completely forgotten about that. That's a riot.
Question is, of course, is if the basics of propoganda, as detailed above, are in fact relevant when talking about Microsoft.
Or do we automatically turn a blind eye to the abuse if it bears some resemblance to those tried and true historical examples?
The trap here is that if we turn a blind eye, then we permit the abuse we abhore happen again. But of course, we can over-react.
The best reaction is to determine the truth, and recognize that some people could use those techniques one way or another, especially if their intent is to destroy.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
For example, the original purposes of the mental health industry were to help government and big business control populations and to control markets. The classic historical example of this is Nazi Germany.
After the war, many companies wanted to make use of the techniques to improve their markets, politicians wanted to advance their causes etc, all taking a page or two for the Nazi play book. But they did not want the stench of the association.
Now we all know that these are honorable men, and that these end goals of control and manipulation have been set aside by the vast majority of governments and organizations around the world.
But here and there we see a hint of the old technique. You redefine the word. You include just enough of the truth, and twist it with a lie, that it requires a sophisticated understanding to spot what is wrong.
to quote Hitler (full chapter here): given variously as (depending on translation:" ... all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan." (or alternatively) "... an effective propaganda has to limit itself to just a few points and must keep repeating them in the form of catch phrases for as long as it takes to have ascertained that even the very last person understands under these words what one wants him to understand." The full chapter makes fascinating reading, especially when comparing it to MS Marketing FUD and tactics.
Ultimately a lie *will* backfire, however, because people see through it and hate you for it. It may take a while, a long time.
Therefore the best PR campiagn is not based in lies, but is uses real truths.
But the MS marketroids resort to twisting and distorting the facts
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
but this would have been forethought in action.
Is this just a little much to hope for?
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
I agree. The biggest problem is programmers who have NO understand on business. Programmers who also have extensive business /accounting/etc expertise are as rare as hen's teeth. (But I do know a couple). They are also way undervalued.
This gets to be the equivalent of a non-coder technology manager who has picked up a book on javascript, and has written something simple in a afternoon. Who then says that there is nothing to javascript, and way can't you use javascript to create this intricate ssetup for me?
A comprehensive understanding of the programming problem is vital to the development of a competent programming solution. To the extent that you do not have the the problem well defined, the more time you will spend debugging, etc.
this is well illustrated by this webpage, which tells the story of a guy who wrote a memory management tool. the only bugs in the program were a handful of typos. It was literally perfection otherwise. He obviously had done all of his debugging on papaer in the first place.
The flip side on this is in large corporate enviroments where people asking for reports, etc do not understand the nature of the data in the first place, and so as for simple things that are hideously difficult, or which are confused in the first place.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
Irony of ironies.
that would make it about the size of a common pen or pencil.
Just don't try to sharpen it.
;-)
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
In this context, here is this bit of classic humor, as they say, "found on the Net"
WHAT IF PEOPLE BOUGHT CARS LIKE THEY BOUGHT COMPUTERS?
General Motors doesn't have a "help line" for people who don't know how to drive, because people don't buy cars like they buy computers -- but imagine if they did . . .
HELPLINE: "General Motors Helpline, how can I help you?"
CUSTOMER: "I got in my car and closed the door, and nothing happened!"
HELPLINE: "Did you put the key in the ignition slot and turn it?"
CUSTOMER: "What's an ignition?"
HELPLINE: "It's a starter motor that draws current from your battery and turns over the engine."
CUSTOMER: "Ignition? Motor? Battery? Engine? How come I have to know all of these technical terms just to use my car?"
HELPLINE: "General Motors Helpline, how can I help you?"
CUSTOMER: "My car ran fine for a week, and now it won't go anywhere!"
HELPLINE: "Is the gas tank empty?"
CUSTOMER: "Huh? How do I know?"
HELPLINE: "There's a little gauge on the front panel, with a needle, and markings from 'E' to 'F.' Where is the needle pointing?"
CUSTOMER: "It's pointing to 'E.' What does that mean?"
HELPLINE: "It means that you have to visit a gasoline vendor, and purchase some more gasoline. You can install it yourself, or pay the vendor to install it for you."
CUSTOMER: "What!? I paid $12,000 for this car! Now you tell me that I have to keep buying more components? I want a car that comes with everything built in!"
HELPLINE: "General Motors Helpline, how can I help you?"
CUSTOMER: "Hi! I just bought my first car, and I chose your car because it has automatic transmission, cruise control, power steering, power brakes, and power door locks."
HELPLINE: "Thanks for buying our car. How can I help you?"
CUSTOMER: "How do I work it?"
HELPLINE: "Do you know how to drive?"
CUSTOMER: "Do I know how to what?"
HELPLINE: "Do you know how to drive?"
CUSTOMER: "I'm not a technical person! I just want to go places in my car!"
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Just a quick aside, there is also the matter of just how page breaks are generated. These are usually part of the printer driver, and there hooks in the word processor, etc for trigger the printer driver code. This was never set up, as far as I know, in HTML. This is a capability that would have to be intergrated via a plugin or something into the browser itself. Now add this to multiple browsers, etc. and you have lots of problems.
I supposed you could generate an activex thing to generate a page break that would get auto loaded into IE, and have it fire when there is a specific tag such as [pgbrk] or similar.
You would also have to integrate specified type sizes so that it still prints correctly even if the user has the parameter to view the browser type set to extra large.
So that is another angle, because then you could set up custom reports using JDBC, Interdev, or similar to pull info from the database. You would just need to generate something that would create a custom tag for the web page
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Now there are a number of products where you could generate a report for a database with HTML tags inserted in the correct local, then print to a text file. snd a separate one for printing. This essentially generates HTML pages for you as you need. All it becomes is a specialized report, that can be uploaded as needed.
So the best option is to have a report that is generated for web display, and have a second one for download in PDF or whatever for printing.
Let's face it, depending on the database, custom reports etc have been where a lot of database analysts and programmers have made the big bucks for a very long time. While you can get away wit simple reports in something like ms access, in the long run your are going to have to get someone who has the knowledge and experience to put it together right.
When I used to do tech support for a consumer database company, I ran into this all the time - Customers wanting to do sometimes complicated things with only a minute or two of effort. Add in some anomolies because the database was not normalised correctly, and you get a bloody mess. It was not so much the system, as it was getting the query right (Alphabetized by state, then town, then family name, and filtering those custers using master card for purchase over 250$ during the month of december, and who still owe us money as of the end of the preceding month)
Depending on the setup, the query could be trivial or a nuisance.
In some cases, you can't get there from here.
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Time for an Open Source Internet play clone - with a distributed system for the modules/rooms/levels/etc - so that this becomes really surreal.
In fact, I like this. P2P Gaming. Could be fun.
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"We had five 500-pound fat guys showing up at the smorgasbord and stuffing themselves all day," Mark R. Goldston, the chief executive of NetZero. He said 12 percent of NetZero's users accounted for 53 percent of its network costs. Cutting back their use, or getting them to find another service provider altogether, will save the company $20 million to $40 million a year.
Of course, I have not seen many people say much about this. This is the problem behind the thing all along. You get users who know how to abuse the system. It is like a water well where everyone can use the water. it is fine until sompeople start to hog as much as they can.
The traditional location of the Garden Of Eden is souteastern Iraq. Archeology bears this out, at least to the degree that it used to be a fertile and lush area. Don't look now, but it has been a desert for a long time. The natural result of typical human behavior is the creation of a desert.
Now imagine this as applied to the Internet.
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http://www.eff.org/bayff/20010506_bayff_announce.h tml
Just to recap:
May 6, 2001 BayFF Featuring 7 Speakers on Censorware
Panel Will Examine Issues Surrounding Internet Blocking in Schools and Libraries, and Community Response
This event is sponsored by: Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco Public Library, James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center, Friends and Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library, Online Policy Group, and Mark Leno, Member of Board of Supervisors, San Francisco.
So this is not a hearing by anyone, but it is a panel discussion. Maybe it is something that could be taped for PBS or something. No info on this angle though.
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As a rule of thumb, it usuallu takes 5 to ten years to get enough experience and expertise at something to be good enough that someone would want to hire you for a skilled position. This includes related experience, and all of the school of hard knocks stuff. This works out to be about 10,000 hours of screwing around with something (40hr.wk X 50 weeks/year X 5 years) You can short cut this to some degree by being talented, or putting in an awful lot of hard work, more hours per week. This is not restricted to formal schooling
Note: Prior Experience with related stuff will count against this. Also, hours daydreaming, watching tv shows, and other brain fart class activities do not count. There is an awful lot of learning time that gets wasted, instead of being really focussed and picking something apart.
(I would love to see a graph of learning rate plotted against IQ sometime. I wonder where the point is where someone learns 2 or 3x faster than a normal person.)
Here is a possible plan of attack:
- At age eight to ten, really get into games, get really good at them
- At age twelve or so, get bored with just playing the games. Pick up a book to figure out how to add levels to the games you do play (such as doom, quake, or whatever) These certainly used to be availble, but things change(?)
- by age 13, start getting familiar with the inside of your machine, or maybe with an old throw-away machine, you might do this if you wanted to install upgrades into your box
- By age 14, get into messing with the game engine. This is certainly available for a number of games. Use this to enhance your games.
- by age 15 start getting into somekind of programming so you can start doing your own stuff, especially building more exotic addons for your favorite game.
- By 17, actuallly build something that runs somehow.
The order is somewhat arbitrary, and shows how you could get several thousand of hours of related experience while being a teenager. Y'know spending maybe 20+ hoursNow if you do this while in college, you would have to put in more time while doing classes at the same time. This could get intense as you could be putting in 80 hr weeks (courses, course work, game work, design) on top of trying to make money, and socialize. (This may be why some geeks have not developed all of their social skills.)
Now If you are older, you'll have to fit this in while indulging in this thing called "having a life", because the earlier plans take advantadge of your free time as a teenager to get things rocketing. Later on, this becomes more difficult, and it becomes far more difficult to find 10 or 20 or 30 free hours in a week to get things rolling. To get the requisite 5 to 10 thousand hours of practical experience will take longer if your are devoting only 5 or 10 hours per week. It is easier if you have a job in a related field, even if it is something like a repair shop at "Computer Jungle" or whatever the local shop is.
So that is a quick overview.
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Some basic info and a couple of links for folks:
- file system - basic defition -the general name given to the logical structures and software routines used to control access to the storage on a hard disk system. Operating systems use different ways of organizing and controlling access to data on the hard disk, and this choice is basically independent of the specific hardware being used--the same hard disk can be arranged in many different ways, and even multiple ways in different areas of the same disk.
- Journaled file system - Basic definition (as seen here)
- IBMs JFS webpage on their system, along with links for for downloads and turtorials online,etc
There is an awfull lot of info at the SGI site. Just poke around.A file system in which the hard disk maintains data integrity in the event of a system crash or if the system is otherwise halted abnormally. The journaled file system (JFS) maintains a log, or journal, of what activity has taken place in the main data areas of the disk; if a crash occurs, any lost data can be recreated because updates to the metadata in directories and bit maps have been written to a serial log. The JFS not only returns the data to the pre-crash configuration but also recovers unsaved data and stores it in the location it would have been stored in if the system had not been unexpectedly interrupted.
As far as the question about how to choose file systems, that is often a matter of what the OS will let you get away with, and your needs. Using FAT 16 is recommended if you need to maintain compatibility with MSDOS, for example. Usually, this is something like if you have a multi boot scenario, and which OSen can mount which partitions with which partitions. MS is notoriously picky in this regard, with a "My way or the Highway approach". For example, if you have a single hard drive hooked up to your computer for configuration purposes, You cannot just create anextended partition unless that drive is a salve with another master. If you want to create just an extended partition it will not permit, and tell you that you can only create a primary dos partition instead.
So you Live and you Learn
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