Not trying to flame, just really curious where stats like this come from, how they're verified, and what the rest of the data look like.
Don't have real data, but I do have an anecdote. About 10 years ago, in NYC (just outside Tower Records at 4th & B'way to be precise) a homeless guy asked me for money. I gave him a few bucks and we began talking. He was really personable and quite intelligent. He claimed to have been a computer programmer and incredulous, I began to test him. Well I can't prove he used to be a programmer, but he sure knew a lot more about computers than I'd expect the average homeless person to, so I pretty much believed him. I also believed him when he said he took in as much as $900 some days and he usually shared his money with the others who weren't doing as well. This guy was smart, engaging and had a good schtick (sp?) so I could see him making a lot of money. Just one example, but there have to be more.
But that is not particular to software. What you're describing is essentially how all high-volume manufacturing works. There is an upfront cost (design, tooling, etc) comparable to the programmer purchasing books and designing/coding for that specific project, ongoing overhead costs which both the programmer's company or a mfg company would share, and revenue from the same thing replicated thousands or millions of times and sold. In real product manufacture the cost of raw materials and machinery would be higher, but beside that there's really no conceptual difference between replicating a programming team's work, and replicating an electrical engineering team's work.
So I would have to say that it is unreasonable for a programmer to has for outrageous wages. No more so than any engineer designing any product, anyway.
In any event, this is all moot. There is a large number of programmers available for most common business automation needs and that's what really matters -- competition. The only real leverage any of us has in bargaining for compensation is our value to the company relative to our total replacement cost. And that has little relationship to how much our work can be replicated.
OK. So let me see if I get this. Correct me if I go wrong. The enemy uses intelligence to understand that ID #3141592345 is a pallet of cartridges and then preprograms a particular mine to blow up if, and only if, it detects that ID. Is that what you're saying? OK, so now they know how to set the mine off, they have to somehow know that that globally unique ID must pass over that mine, which means that "they" know enough about our logistics chain to be able to predict what route specific shipments are taking so they know where to put specific mines, right?
Doesn't it occur to you that any enemy having such intimate knowledge of US supply chain operations could find much, much easier ways of destroying shipments and personnel than laying a mine and hoping that it detonates without failure at some point in the future?
In some ways that is worse. An RFID detecting boobytrap/mine that specifically attacks the logistics chain. With a bit of intellegence work it could target specific equipment
Um, just curious: exactly how is the mine going to know that ID #3141592345 is say, Cartridges, 50 cal and not Boots, size 10?
Short answer: Do it backwards...or more accurately, do it later. If you can't make the checksum match the payload...make the payload match the checksum! Watch:
ok, why is this special? it's a standardised embedded gui for medical systems. you know, like the ones offered by half a dozen other companies (symbian, qnx, etc)
It's "special" because it was submitted by someone who admitted to not knowing much about the medical device industry. Having worked for some time in the industry I agree that stuff like this has been available for years; but if someone submits an article on a topic they know nothing about it's not surprising that they think it's new.
Re:Is this book really neccessary??
on
Software Exorcism
·
· Score: 1
Is this really the "corporate landscape" for many software engineers? A job so bad where you feel compelled to check for keyloggers, keep paper trails locked in a home safe, etc.?
Pretty much what I wondered after reading some of these replies. Perhaps it's more prevalent in the "IT" type environment where you might be coding for banks, insurance, healthcare, etc. All my software has been for machinery control or industrial/engineering applications. Sure, there are always politics, but never to the extent I'm seeing here. I've worked in one small business, two $multibillion corporations and owned my own very small (tiny) business and consulted for manufacturing companies.
The kind of office/project politics I've had to deal with were for the most part easily negotiated(*). The one time things got unpleasant, I just made sure all my decisions were justified with good data and my mgt was always aware of what I was doing. Never had a problem.
(*) I think this may be a personal issue, and the author alludes to it in the book. Business types get training in organizational behavior, while tech types typically don't (though we did deal with Conflict Management in my Software Project Management class). The reason it becomes such an issue might simply be that some people are oblivious to politics until things escalate to a dangerous level.
My general practice was not to buy the book until the professor demonstrated we would be needing it. Not strangely, none of them ever questioned my reasonings for doing this, YMMV.
Mine also. Even then, I would look in the library for an equivalent book and just borrow someone else's copy to do the homework problems. One interesting approach I only saw once was the professor who gave away books. For his Intro Chemistry class, he brought a big box of sample textbooks publishers had sent him over the years. Each student just grabbed a book, any book: most of them were different. His logic was that all intro Chem. books had the same material anyway, just varied in presentation and he made up his own homeworks which he distributed as photocopies. End result: he cleaned up his office of the tons of unwanted freshman books, and the students got free texts.
It's really nice when I decided to return to school for an MS and my employer paid for everything except parking fees. Really nice not having to worry about the cost of books or only getting the used copies.
"hard realtime" in this case meant that any operations not completed in their alloted time window would be aborted due to the hardware they were running on no longer existing.
I like anecdotes like this. When I first started learning about realtime systems, the example that stuck in my head was a data acquisition system to transmit data from a nuke explosion. Before the last data packet had time to reach the receiver some miles away, the transmitter no longer existed. That's hard realtime!
obAOL: me too. Forgot to mention this in my post. I'm typing this on a 1.5GHz beige box machine using an IBM Model M I picked up years ago. Love the sound of those keys.
I have a Philips Focalpoint '386 running DOS that I use for some control projects at home. Tried loading Linux on it, but it only recognizes 1M memory no matter how much I install. There doesn't seem to be any way to get into the BIOS to poke around and change that... then again I haven't tried too hard. But it's a sweet machine. Built like a tank!! I haven't seen sheet metal this thick even on the old IBM 5150s. It was designed for use as a Point Of Sale terminal and cost $30 surplus a few years ago.
No, a credit card company cannot open a line of credit for me without my authorization, which is exactly what they did to this person. They can send me pre-approved offers, but not an actual card that has an open line of credit.
Same difference. You get a pre-approved offer with a card enclosed. Using the card constitutes acceptance of the offer and opens the stated line of credit. I've received a bunch of these, but always shredded them as my one credit card is quite enough. The really dumb thing is that some of the offers come from the same bank that my current card is from.
How whould you accept or reject a creditcard send to you. If a CC company sended me a creditcard i didn't request I would use it and laugh in their face the moment they come to collect the money.
I can't make any claims to the legality of it, but cards usually come with a statement to the effect that if you use it you are agreeing to the terms of use. Unlike an EULA, you have the chance to read the agreement before using the card. To reject the card, just cut it up and toss the pieces out (I toss them in the fireplace in winter or just melt them on the stovetop). The obvious problem here is if the mail goes to someone else and he uses it, the CC company is going to try to come after *you* for the bill.
It's that if you are in the middle of Manhattan at night with no cash and no ID after a mugging, you're fucked. It's going to be a long, unpleasant night of trying to get home. It does happen.
Or if you're watching the movie "After Hours" it's pretty damn funny. Though he wasn't mugged; his money flew out a cab window or something like that.
obSerious: I have lived in NYC and coming home late at night I used to tuck most of my cash in my socks with a $20 or so in my wallet to keep the mugger from being too pissed off. Incidentally for anyone trying this: muggers are wise to it and will sometimes tell you to take your shoes and socks off. So I've been told anyway.
And since the application was submitted through them without an authorized signature, it's called Fraud.
I really don't see anything fraudulent here. Unethical and slimy, yes, but not fraudulent. The CC company can give you a credit card; you don't have to accept it. Now if you tried to get a credit card by giving them bad info, then you might be charged with fraud. IOW, if I walk up to you and say "here, take my car. It's almost paid off." I'm not committing fraud; I'm offering you a gift with strings attached.
As for the telemarketing stuff, the person who fished her application out of the trash was a slimeball, but it was discarded in a public place, so there's not much she can do. Sure she can sue, but for what damages? There's no reason to believe that anything would be gained other than to make a few lawyers rich.
As another poster pointed out, most of those places you mention are not owned/connected with the Federal government. In any event, with the exception of a parking garage (went into one yesterday for the first time in months) or a "commonly traversed street", I haven't been anywhere near any of the places you listed in over a year.
Let us not forget that with a high gain antenna, and a good amplifier, you can extend your detection range
Just how do you plan on differentiating between the multitude of RFID tags you query at a distance? Do you have any idea how wide the beamwidth of even a high gain antenna is? Do you think you can somehow just select individual tags? Aim it at a shopping bag of the average mallrat and you'd just get a cacophony of noise coming from 20 tags screaming data over the same frequency. I'd be interested in just how much trouble anyone will go to just to find out what I'm carrying.
This is more than "complete nonsense:" it's paranoia on a grand scale. Face it, you're just not that important and no one has sufficient interest in your possessions to implement this kind of monitoring. The few things you might have that "THEY!!!" want to know about are much more easily monitored using existing methods.
I think it says something about how we as Americans perceive education when we have to look at it from the viewpoint of "Can I get a job with this?". Education is it's own reward, in that it gives you options in life, not just the workplace.
I used to say the same thing, but not any more. Education is expensive both in terms of money and time. I do believe in education for its own sake, but when it comes to spending large amounts of money to do so I think it makes sense to look at it as an investment that can repay those finances used. Not saying it has to, mind you, but the cost should be considered seriously.
I got my Master's essentially at no cost to myself. Except for parking fees, my employer picked up the whole $25,000+ tab and I now have a valuable library of textbooks, class handouts, and my own notes. The degree (MS Software Engineering), is useful in my day-to-day work as our software is for the highly regulated Medical Device industry, but it was not required for the job. The skills I had were already quite sufficient. So why did I do it? I wanted to learn things I knew I was unlikely to teach myself and to learn things where the experience of the instructor was a great asset.
I'm an embedded developer with an EE degree, but Database Theory and AI were two of the most interesting courses I took, and Databases was a required core course I would not otherwise have taken)
Now, I didn't spend much money, but I gave up an awful lot of time in class, the 1 hour commute from work to school, and studying during the 3 years it took me. And it was worth every second IMO -- opened my eyes to the better ways of developing software and managing projects and just to the breadth of software in general, rather than my focused world of machine control. I like to think that if the corporation hadn't paid for my degree I would have done it out of my own pocket, but the reality is that I probably would not have.
In all cases the electronics are best left separate from the clothing, and made small so they can be carried around.
You're forgetting that there can be special purpose devices like there is special purpose clothing:
A mechanic might be able to purchase overalls that come with a built in On Board Diagnostics interface with a screen on the sleeve. Or as others have noted, his glasses might project repair manuals that the computer built into his clothing is accessing through the shop's network.
Mountaineering jackets can have body-monitoring functions that pick up signals from sensors embedded in gloves or underclothing to indicate you're getting frostbitten or have passed out and call for help, relaying your position & altitude with GPS.
Wetsuits can do something similar like monitoring water depth, respiration rate, time at depth, %blood nitrogen, etc.
Of course all of these devices assume that the cost of hardware drops to negligible amounts, but that's happening rapidly anyway. Priced right and packaged to withstand users' abuse and washing, etc, and it will become normal to expect that some clothing does more than just protect you from the elements. The advantage you say you don't get is not having to carry extra items around. Look at fishermen for a simple example. Fly fishing vests have pockets designed to carry flies so there's no need for an external tackle box as the user is often in areas where one wouldn't be feasible anyway. In fact as I write this, I'm thinking that waders that measured water temperature/flow and stream bottom composition and relayed that to the vest that uses GPS to figure out where I am while monitoring light levels and tell me what my odds are of catching something at that time of day in that location are would be worthwhile if it only added say $20 to the cost of all the clothing. That additional cost is not unreasonable considering how quickly I've seen the cost of electronic components drop in the last 10 years.
A book's worth should be measured by its information content. If the knowledge a class presents is worth your spending $3000 in tuition, surely the keeping the textbook is worth more than the $50 you'd get selling it used
I agree with the first part, but not the second. Some textbooks are useless, or just too dense to be comprehensible (books on feedback network theory come to mind), even though the class itself is very good. As an undergraduate I eventually learned to look through copies of books before I bought them. In some cases I never bought the text as I didn't see much substance there; in others the material was generic enough that I could borrow a similar book or older edition from the library for my own use when I needed to study. Homework problems: I could just borrow someone else's book or photocopy the relevant pages.
Didn't do this a lot, but it definitely saved me some money and taught me to look for alternate sources when studying a subject. That last bit was especially important when I returned for Master's.
I haven't priced USB cables, but I noticed that you can get those crappy digital cameras from Office Max for $9 (the display says $49, but thereal price is $9) and it comes with a 5 ft USB cable. I considered buying a few just in case I needed extra cables since to get a lower price I'd probably have to order online and shipping costs would make it more expensive.
...and in Japanese, san is 3 so the company is 3-2. Oh, and there is a japanese car (Toyota) called the MR2.
Did you have some kind of a point here?
Re:The Developers he wants wont even notice.
on
The Bionic Office
·
· Score: 1
That's pretty much what I thought about the article. Don't get me wrong: I'm all for improving the work environment, but don't add distractions. I like my job, sometimes I love it. But my approach is: get in, do the work, go home. I work through lunch usually so I don't have to stay the extra hour and when I've accomplished enough I leave. I have cool managers and relatively smart co workers, and a (usually) interesting project but it's work.
I have a life at home, and even if I didn't, I would just go home and find something even more interesting to code, on my own time, in my own space, at my own pace.
Don't bother. I saw an interview with the head of Vivid video and he claimed that neither he nor any other pr0n makers had any intention of going after P2Pers. Evidently they like the free advertising.
His observation boils down to "Java is not useful for database backed websites," not that the language is inherently bad.
It should hardly be a revelation that languages like PHP that were explicity designed for web development are much better suited to it than a language whose origins are as a cross-platform embedded systems (TV set-top boxes) language. Use the appropriate tool for the job at hand.
The whole SUV-bashing thing is childish. Does anyone complain that a Corvette owner isn't trying to corner at 0.98g or whatever the current spec is?
but I'm not convinced that parents should be concerned about the welfare of their children at the expense of others
Neither am I, and I fail to see what I said implies this. Helping my child get ahead does not equate to pushing other children down.
When wealth is just a means of sitting back and taking from society it is a bad thing.
Again, I fail to see your point. If I die a billionaire and leave all my money to my children who then decide not to work a day of their lives but just live off the inheritance, how then are they "taking from society?" They're taking from me, but that's what I intended.
Granted, I find it difficult to believe that any child of mine would be so boring and unimaginative to just sit around on a huge pile of money watching Jerry Springer and eating custom-baked Twinkies, but even if that's what happens, why should it matter to anyone else.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't have real data, but I do have an anecdote. About 10 years ago, in NYC (just outside Tower Records at 4th & B'way to be precise) a homeless guy asked me for money. I gave him a few bucks and we began talking. He was really personable and quite intelligent. He claimed to have been a computer programmer and incredulous, I began to test him. Well I can't prove he used to be a programmer, but he sure knew a lot more about computers than I'd expect the average homeless person to, so I pretty much believed him. I also believed him when he said he took in as much as $900 some days and he usually shared his money with the others who weren't doing as well. This guy was smart, engaging and had a good schtick (sp?) so I could see him making a lot of money.
Just one example, but there have to be more.
But that is not particular to software.
What you're describing is essentially how all high-volume manufacturing works. There is an upfront cost (design, tooling, etc) comparable to the programmer purchasing books and designing/coding for that specific project, ongoing overhead costs which both the programmer's company or a mfg company would share, and revenue from the same thing replicated thousands or millions of times and sold. In real product manufacture the cost of raw materials and machinery would be higher, but beside that there's really no conceptual difference between replicating a programming team's work, and replicating an electrical engineering team's work.
So I would have to say that it is unreasonable for a programmer to has for outrageous wages. No more so than any engineer designing any product, anyway.
In any event, this is all moot. There is a large number of programmers available for most common business automation needs and that's what really matters -- competition.
The only real leverage any of us has in bargaining for compensation is our value to the company relative to our total replacement cost. And that has little relationship to how much our work can be replicated.
OK. So let me see if I get this. Correct me if I go wrong. The enemy uses intelligence to understand that ID #3141592345 is a pallet of cartridges and then preprograms a particular mine to blow up if, and only if, it detects that ID. Is that what you're saying? OK, so now they know how to set the mine off, they have to somehow know that that globally unique ID must pass over that mine, which means that "they" know enough about our logistics chain to be able to predict what route specific shipments are taking so they know where to put specific mines, right?
Doesn't it occur to you that any enemy having such intimate knowledge of US supply chain operations could find much, much easier ways of destroying shipments and personnel than laying a mine and hoping that it detonates without failure at some point in the future?
Um, just curious: exactly how is the mine going to know that ID #3141592345 is say, Cartridges, 50 cal and not Boots, size 10?
Now THAT is the true definition of a cool hack!
It's "special" because it was submitted by someone who admitted to not knowing much about the medical device industry. Having worked for some time in the industry I agree that stuff like this has been available for years; but if someone submits an article on a topic they know nothing about it's not surprising that they think it's new.
Pretty much what I wondered after reading some of these replies. Perhaps it's more prevalent in the "IT" type environment where you might be coding for banks, insurance, healthcare, etc. All my software has been for machinery control or industrial/engineering applications. Sure, there are always politics, but never to the extent I'm seeing here. I've worked in one small business, two $multibillion corporations and owned my own very small (tiny) business and consulted for manufacturing companies.
The kind of office/project politics I've had to deal with were for the most part easily negotiated(*). The one time things got unpleasant, I just made sure all my decisions were justified with good data and my mgt was always aware of what I was doing. Never had a problem.
(*) I think this may be a personal issue, and the author alludes to it in the book. Business types get training in organizational behavior, while tech types typically don't (though we did deal with Conflict Management in my Software Project Management class). The reason it becomes such an issue might simply be that some people are oblivious to politics until things escalate to a dangerous level.
Mine also. Even then, I would look in the library for an equivalent book and just borrow someone else's copy to do the homework problems.
One interesting approach I only saw once was the professor who gave away books. For his Intro Chemistry class, he brought a big box of sample textbooks publishers had sent him over the years. Each student just grabbed a book, any book: most of them were different. His logic was that all intro Chem. books had the same material anyway, just varied in presentation and he made up his own homeworks which he distributed as photocopies. End result: he cleaned up his office of the tons of unwanted freshman books, and the students got free texts.
It's really nice when I decided to return to school for an MS and my employer paid for everything except parking fees. Really nice not having to worry about the cost of books or only getting the used copies.
I like anecdotes like this. When I first started learning about realtime systems, the example that stuck in my head was a data acquisition system to transmit data from a nuke explosion. Before the last data packet had time to reach the receiver some miles away, the transmitter no longer existed. That's hard realtime!
obAOL: me too.
Forgot to mention this in my post. I'm typing this on a 1.5GHz beige box machine using an IBM Model M I picked up years ago. Love the sound of those keys.
I have a Philips Focalpoint '386 running DOS that I use for some control projects at home. Tried loading Linux on it, but it only recognizes 1M memory no matter how much I install. There doesn't seem to be any way to get into the BIOS to poke around and change that... then again I haven't tried too hard.
But it's a sweet machine. Built like a tank!! I haven't seen sheet metal this thick even on the old IBM 5150s. It was designed for use as a Point Of Sale terminal and cost $30 surplus a few years ago.
Same difference. You get a pre-approved offer with a card enclosed. Using the card constitutes acceptance of the offer and opens the stated line of credit. I've received a bunch of these, but always shredded them as my one credit card is quite enough. The really dumb thing is that some of the offers come from the same bank that my current card is from.
I can't make any claims to the legality of it, but cards usually come with a statement to the effect that if you use it you are agreeing to the terms of use. Unlike an EULA, you have the chance to read the agreement before using the card. To reject the card, just cut it up and toss the pieces out (I toss them in the fireplace in winter or just melt them on the stovetop).
The obvious problem here is if the mail goes to someone else and he uses it, the CC company is going to try to come after *you* for the bill.
Or if you're watching the movie "After Hours" it's pretty damn funny. Though he wasn't mugged; his money flew out a cab window or something like that.
obSerious: I have lived in NYC and coming home late at night I used to tuck most of my cash in my socks with a $20 or so in my wallet to keep the mugger from being too pissed off. Incidentally for anyone trying this: muggers are wise to it and will sometimes tell you to take your shoes and socks off. So I've been told anyway.
I really don't see anything fraudulent here. Unethical and slimy, yes, but not fraudulent. The CC company can give you a credit card; you don't have to accept it. Now if you tried to get a credit card by giving them bad info, then you might be charged with fraud.
IOW, if I walk up to you and say "here, take my car. It's almost paid off." I'm not committing fraud; I'm offering you a gift with strings attached.
As for the telemarketing stuff, the person who fished her application out of the trash was a slimeball, but it was discarded in a public place, so there's not much she can do. Sure she can sue, but for what damages? There's no reason to believe that anything would be gained other than to make a few lawyers rich.
Just how do you plan on differentiating between the multitude of RFID tags you query at a distance? Do you have any idea how wide the beamwidth of even a high gain antenna is? Do you think you can somehow just select individual tags? Aim it at a shopping bag of the average mallrat and you'd just get a cacophony of noise coming from 20 tags screaming data over the same frequency. I'd be interested in just how much trouble anyone will go to just to find out what I'm carrying.
This is more than "complete nonsense:" it's paranoia on a grand scale.
Face it, you're just not that important and no one has sufficient interest in your possessions to implement this kind of monitoring. The few things you might have that "THEY!!!" want to know about are much more easily monitored using existing methods.
I used to say the same thing, but not any more. Education is expensive both in terms of money and time. I do believe in education for its own sake, but when it comes to spending large amounts of money to do so I think it makes sense to look at it as an investment that can repay those finances used. Not saying it has to, mind you, but the cost should be considered seriously.
I got my Master's essentially at no cost to myself. Except for parking fees, my employer picked up the whole $25,000+ tab and I now have a valuable library of textbooks, class handouts, and my own notes. The degree (MS Software Engineering), is useful in my day-to-day work as our software is for the highly regulated Medical Device industry, but it was not required for the job. The skills I had were already quite sufficient. So why did I do it? I wanted to learn things I knew I was unlikely to teach myself and to learn things where the experience of the instructor was a great asset.
I'm an embedded developer with an EE degree, but Database Theory and AI were two of the most interesting courses I took, and Databases was a required core course I would not otherwise have taken)
Now, I didn't spend much money, but I gave up an awful lot of time in class, the 1 hour commute from work to school, and studying during the 3 years it took me. And it was worth every second IMO -- opened my eyes to the better ways of developing software and managing projects and just to the breadth of software in general, rather than my focused world of machine control. I like to think that if the corporation hadn't paid for my degree I would have done it out of my own pocket, but the reality is that I probably would not have.
You're forgetting that there can be special purpose devices like there is special purpose clothing:
A mechanic might be able to purchase overalls that come with a built in On Board Diagnostics interface with a screen on the sleeve. Or as others have noted, his glasses might project repair manuals that the computer built into his clothing is accessing through the shop's network.
Mountaineering jackets can have body-monitoring functions that pick up signals from sensors embedded in gloves or underclothing to indicate you're getting frostbitten or have passed out and call for help, relaying your position & altitude with GPS.
Wetsuits can do something similar like monitoring water depth, respiration rate, time at depth, %blood nitrogen, etc.
Of course all of these devices assume that the cost of hardware drops to negligible amounts, but that's happening rapidly anyway. Priced right and packaged to withstand users' abuse and washing, etc, and it will become normal to expect that some clothing does more than just protect you from the elements.
The advantage you say you don't get is not having to carry extra items around. Look at fishermen for a simple example. Fly fishing vests have pockets designed to carry flies so there's no need for an external tackle box as the user is often in areas where one wouldn't be feasible anyway. In fact as I write this, I'm thinking that waders that measured water temperature/flow and stream bottom composition and relayed that to the vest that uses GPS to figure out where I am while monitoring light levels and tell me what my odds are of catching something at that time of day in that location are would be worthwhile if it only added say $20 to the cost of all the clothing. That additional cost is not unreasonable considering how quickly I've seen the cost of electronic components drop in the last 10 years.
I agree with the first part, but not the second. Some textbooks are useless, or just too dense to be comprehensible (books on feedback network theory come to mind), even though the class itself is very good. As an undergraduate I eventually learned to look through copies of books before I bought them. In some cases I never bought the text as I didn't see much substance there; in others the material was generic enough that I could borrow a similar book or older edition from the library for my own use when I needed to study. Homework problems: I could just borrow someone else's book or photocopy the relevant pages.
Didn't do this a lot, but it definitely saved me some money and taught me to look for alternate sources when studying a subject. That last bit was especially important when I returned for Master's.
I haven't priced USB cables, but I noticed that you can get those crappy digital cameras from Office Max for $9 (the display says $49, but thereal price is $9) and it comes with a 5 ft USB cable. I considered buying a few just in case I needed extra cables since to get a lower price I'd probably have to order online and shipping costs would make it more expensive.
...and in Japanese, san is 3 so the company is 3-2. Oh, and there is a japanese car (Toyota) called the MR2.
Did you have some kind of a point here?
That's pretty much what I thought about the article. Don't get me wrong: I'm all for improving the work environment, but don't add distractions. I like my job, sometimes I love it. But my approach is: get in, do the work, go home. I work through lunch usually so I don't have to stay the extra hour and when I've accomplished enough I leave. I have cool managers and relatively smart co workers, and a (usually) interesting project but it's work.
I have a life at home, and even if I didn't, I would just go home and find something even more interesting to code, on my own time, in my own space, at my own pace.
Don't bother. I saw an interview with the head of Vivid video and he claimed that neither he nor any other pr0n makers had any intention of going after P2Pers. Evidently they like the free advertising.
His observation boils down to "Java is not useful for database backed websites," not that the language is inherently bad.
It should hardly be a revelation that languages like PHP that were explicity designed for web development are much better suited to it than a language whose origins are as a cross-platform embedded systems (TV set-top boxes) language.
Use the appropriate tool for the job at hand.
The whole SUV-bashing thing is childish. Does anyone complain that a Corvette owner isn't trying to corner at 0.98g or whatever the current spec is?
Neither am I, and I fail to see what I said implies this. Helping my child get ahead does not equate to pushing other children down.
Again, I fail to see your point. If I die a billionaire and leave all my money to my children who then decide not to work a day of their lives but just live off the inheritance, how then are they "taking from society?" They're taking from me, but that's what I intended.
Granted, I find it difficult to believe that any child of mine would be so boring and unimaginative to just sit around on a huge pile of money watching Jerry Springer and eating custom-baked Twinkies, but even if that's what happens, why should it matter to anyone else.