A single language makes each developer easily replacable. You quit, they just hire another Java programmer.
The fungibility of programming talent is highly overstated.
You could replace a great Java programmer with a mediocre Java programmer, and get mediocre Java code as a result.
Or, you could replace a great Java programmer with a great C++ programmer, and get great C++ code as a result -- and a possible long-term loss of productivity as debugging a heterogenous codebase takes more time and effort.
Or, you could replace a great Java programmer with a great C++ programmer, lose a little bit of productivity in the short term as he learns the nuances of the new language, but in the long term end up with great Java code as a result.
Or, frankly, if you have a great Java programmer you can take care of him (or her) well enough that they don't leave and have to be replaced, so that you can avoid the pitfalls of all three of the above scenarios.
The hardest part of this project was getting managers from various departments to agree on how this system we're trying to automate is supposed to work, and describe it to me in a way that would allow me to translate it to software. Compounding the proverbial six-blind-men-describing-an-elephant problem was the fact that everybody was using different vocabulary.
No one likes writing them, or reading them, or dealing with people who live by them, but this is the kind of scenario where a plain-English project specification--complete with a glossary of terminology that every stakeholder in the project is expected to use--really comes in handy.
So... er... looks like you don't know what you're talking about, really...
Way to pick apart the example and miss the point.
Argue about the parent poster's groupings all you want, but the concept that there are groups of languages optimal for each kind of task and that it is a practical idea to standardize on one language within each of those groups remains sound.
If someone would actually enjoy a conversation about data abstraction, business application development, and advanced theory in.Net development, I'd be all for it though!
Shouldn't it be enough to have conversations about data abstraction, business application development, and advanced theory by themselves? Why narrow the scope by focusing specifically on.Net?
There is nothing wrong with not proclaiming a theory to be fact.
He wasn't asking the web copy be changed from "Big Bang fact" to "Big Bang theory".
The Big Bang is a scientific theory, and it is valid to call it such. But to tack the word "theory" onto EVERY SINGLE MENTION of the term is not a clarification; it is a linguistic exercise designed to create uncertainty and doubt.
The market solution is to give the person with the best output and lowest price the work. John Jr rarely will be that person.
Or, having been taught all his life that love = family = business, John Jr will work harder to keep the company successful than someone with only a financial stake. If the business fails, John Jr could lose EVERYTHING.
This doesn't affect your main point, which is that nepotism in government is worse because free market forces aren't as applicable.
This nepotism happens in elections as well as appointments, though. Consider John Quincy Adams and George Walker Bush -- would either man have been President if their fathers had not been?
Seems to me like they deserve all the goodwill anyway.
My thought exactly.
It's like when a bum asks you for change, and you give him a dollar, and the next words out of his mouth are "Gimme another dollar."
The nature of Open Source is that Sun can't really take their dollar back. But I wouldn't blame them if they felt resentment towards those who insist that one free dollar isn't enough.
Maybe it's because I've been using traditional computer keyboards and mice for 20+ years, of maybe it's because I've been playing drums for 15+ years, but to me the "wrists flat" position for my forearms seems a lot more natural than the "handshake" position.
I mean, the human body wasn't designed for holding our forearms out parallel to the floor for long periods, anyway -- so what difference does the rotational position of the arm make?
The paper is long, spends 2/3 of its pages clarifying and justifying its particular use of the somewhat controversial VBM technique and otherwise qualifying its results.
Personally, I don't feel that Visual Basic Macro techniques have ANY place in the realm of Science...
To understand the problem average folks have, you need to look at the computer as a single, monolithic appliance, not as a computer with userspace and system files.
But the computer IS NOT a single, monolithic appliance. Trying to force it to be so makes it less flexible, less useful.
Maybe the idea of the single internal hard disk used for programs and data together needs to come to an end. Back in the days of floppies, people understood where there files were, because there was a physical, manipulable object that held them.
Compared to the Prius which is going to need new batteries every 3-5 years.
"Aw jeez, not this shit again."
As far as I'm aware, Toyota has yet to replace the battery in a North American Prius due to normal wear and tear, and they've been on the roads for over 5 years now. Furthermore, the battery is warrantied for 8 years or 100,000 miles, so even if for some reason it does fail after 3 years, you're not paying $3000 to get it replaced.
And while discussing diesel cars, you may want to touch on how dirty their exhaust is. You can't even buy a diesel passenger car in some states, as they don't meet emissions standards.
Being non-USian I'm very happy with this kind of things, because it means the start of the decline of USA in science and technology.
Scientific and technological advancements don't (or at least shouldn't) benefit only those in the country where they take place. They benefit all of Mankind.
I would hate to see the United States decline in the fields of science and technology, for that would be depriving all of us of valuable knowledge. If other countries catch up to the US in those fields, that's different and much preferable.
I think the main problem here is a conflict between two definitions of the word "theory"
I would think anyone employed by NASA, even if they're "only" in Public Relations, should DAMN WELL be familiar with the scientific definition of the word "theory".
What's the value of Johnny's first day of school photos if you can't boot the damned computer?
System files are fungible; user files are not.
If my OS gets trashed but my photos are unscathed, I can still view them if I rebuild the OS using the install discs -- or I can even switch to a different OS entirely, and the photos will be viewable there. It may take some time to recover, but it's possible and even likely.
If my photos get trashed, though, and I don't have a a good backup copy, they're gone forever. There's nothing that can be done.
I'm disappointed that after 10 years Google can't write a spider that DOESN'T identify itself as GoogleBot and confirms that pages match what the spider sees.
I don't think it's that they CAN'T, it's that they WON'T. Is is Evil to send out a spider that lies about what it is.
How hard could it possibly be to setup a few more spiders' whose sole job is to follow the real Googlebots and misidentify their UA to confirm what's been indexed?
I dunno, but ask the server admins how happy it would make them if the spidering traffic from the IP range held by Google suddenly doubled.
Slashdot Mirror
I doubt if any of these self-proclaimed muslims have actually read the Koran though.
I doubt you have, either, or you'd understand that your quotes are in the context of self-defense against those that are fighting to destroy Islam.
A single language makes each developer easily replacable. You quit, they just hire another Java programmer.
The fungibility of programming talent is highly overstated.
You could replace a great Java programmer with a mediocre Java programmer, and get mediocre Java code as a result.
Or, you could replace a great Java programmer with a great C++ programmer, and get great C++ code as a result -- and a possible long-term loss of productivity as debugging a heterogenous codebase takes more time and effort.
Or, you could replace a great Java programmer with a great C++ programmer, lose a little bit of productivity in the short term as he learns the nuances of the new language, but in the long term end up with great Java code as a result.
Or, frankly, if you have a great Java programmer you can take care of him (or her) well enough that they don't leave and have to be replaced, so that you can avoid the pitfalls of all three of the above scenarios.
The hardest part of this project was getting managers from various departments to agree on how this system we're trying to automate is supposed to work, and describe it to me in a way that would allow me to translate it to software. Compounding the proverbial six-blind-men-describing-an-elephant problem was the fact that everybody was using different vocabulary.
No one likes writing them, or reading them, or dealing with people who live by them, but this is the kind of scenario where a plain-English project specification--complete with a glossary of terminology that every stakeholder in the project is expected to use--really comes in handy.
So... er... looks like you don't know what you're talking about, really...
Way to pick apart the example and miss the point.
Argue about the parent poster's groupings all you want, but the concept that there are groups of languages optimal for each kind of task and that it is a practical idea to standardize on one language within each of those groups remains sound.
If someone would actually enjoy a conversation about data abstraction, business application development, and advanced theory in .Net development, I'd be all for it though!
.Net?
Shouldn't it be enough to have conversations about data abstraction, business application development, and advanced theory by themselves? Why narrow the scope by focusing specifically on
What they don't tell you is that because it's based on ImageMagick, it will still barf on certain malformed JFIF header blocks.
There is nothing wrong with not proclaiming a theory to be fact.
He wasn't asking the web copy be changed from "Big Bang fact" to "Big Bang theory".
The Big Bang is a scientific theory, and it is valid to call it such. But to tack the word "theory" onto EVERY SINGLE MENTION of the term is not a clarification; it is a linguistic exercise designed to create uncertainty and doubt.
The market solution is to give the person with the best output and lowest price the work. John Jr rarely will be that person.
Or, having been taught all his life that love = family = business, John Jr will work harder to keep the company successful than someone with only a financial stake. If the business fails, John Jr could lose EVERYTHING.
This doesn't affect your main point, which is that nepotism in government is worse because free market forces aren't as applicable.
This nepotism happens in elections as well as appointments, though. Consider John Quincy Adams and George Walker Bush -- would either man have been President if their fathers had not been?
Seems to me like they deserve all the goodwill anyway.
My thought exactly.
It's like when a bum asks you for change, and you give him a dollar, and the next words out of his mouth are "Gimme another dollar."
The nature of Open Source is that Sun can't really take their dollar back. But I wouldn't blame them if they felt resentment towards those who insist that one free dollar isn't enough.
Maybe it's because I've been using traditional computer keyboards and mice for 20+ years, of maybe it's because I've been playing drums for 15+ years, but to me the "wrists flat" position for my forearms seems a lot more natural than the "handshake" position.
I mean, the human body wasn't designed for holding our forearms out parallel to the floor for long periods, anyway -- so what difference does the rotational position of the arm make?
The paper is long, spends 2/3 of its pages clarifying and justifying its particular use of the somewhat controversial VBM technique and otherwise qualifying its results.
Personally, I don't feel that Visual Basic Macro techniques have ANY place in the realm of Science...
To understand the problem average folks have, you need to look at the computer as a single, monolithic appliance, not as a computer with userspace and system files.
But the computer IS NOT a single, monolithic appliance. Trying to force it to be so makes it less flexible, less useful.
Maybe the idea of the single internal hard disk used for programs and data together needs to come to an end. Back in the days of floppies, people understood where there files were, because there was a physical, manipulable object that held them.
Compared to the Prius which is going to need new batteries every 3-5 years.
"Aw jeez, not this shit again."
As far as I'm aware, Toyota has yet to replace the battery in a North American Prius due to normal wear and tear, and they've been on the roads for over 5 years now. Furthermore, the battery is warrantied for 8 years or 100,000 miles, so even if for some reason it does fail after 3 years, you're not paying $3000 to get it replaced.
And while discussing diesel cars, you may want to touch on how dirty their exhaust is. You can't even buy a diesel passenger car in some states, as they don't meet emissions standards.
Being non-USian I'm very happy with this kind of things, because it means the start of the decline of USA in science and technology.
Scientific and technological advancements don't (or at least shouldn't) benefit only those in the country where they take place. They benefit all of Mankind.
I would hate to see the United States decline in the fields of science and technology, for that would be depriving all of us of valuable knowledge. If other countries catch up to the US in those fields, that's different and much preferable.
I think the main problem here is a conflict between two definitions of the word "theory"
I would think anyone employed by NASA, even if they're "only" in Public Relations, should DAMN WELL be familiar with the scientific definition of the word "theory".
What's the value of Johnny's first day of school photos if you can't boot the damned computer?
System files are fungible; user files are not.
If my OS gets trashed but my photos are unscathed, I can still view them if I rebuild the OS using the install discs -- or I can even switch to a different OS entirely, and the photos will be viewable there. It may take some time to recover, but it's possible and even likely.
If my photos get trashed, though, and I don't have a a good backup copy, they're gone forever. There's nothing that can be done.
I think you left out the part where you beat up the guy's elderly mother and molested his dog.
Jeez, dude. If the company treats you like shit, just resign and move on. There's no need to take the entire company down.
The Gimp is good enough for most of us.
Most Of Us aren't graphics professionals, though. And why should we ever settle for "good enough", anyway?
I'm disappointed that after 10 years Google can't write a spider that DOESN'T identify itself as GoogleBot and confirms that pages match what the spider sees.
I don't think it's that they CAN'T, it's that they WON'T. Is is Evil to send out a spider that lies about what it is.
How hard could it possibly be to setup a few more spiders' whose sole job is to follow the real Googlebots and misidentify their UA to confirm what's been indexed?
I dunno, but ask the server admins how happy it would make them if the spidering traffic from the IP range held by Google suddenly doubled.
Bad move to buy a 32-bit chip in a world that's rapidly moving to 64-bit processors.
Which world would that be? Personal computers are moving to 64-bit at about the same rate that IPv6 is being adopted right now: glacially.
The lady maybe never touched the computer, but what about the kids? She's responsible for their actions!
But is she CRIMINALLY LIABLE for their actions?
If a 12-year-old gets caught selling drugs, do they put his mother in jail?
My question is, now that this obvious inconsistency has been exposed, what does this mean to those that have already been convicted?
My question is, who has been convicted? Don't the majority of people fingered by the RIAA admit their actions and voluntarily pay a few grand?
My other question is, what crime would they be convicted of?
Security is not a Product. It is a Process.
Symantec can promise the world, but true security is quite a bit beyond the reach of installing a "security daemon" and forgetting about it.
Google lost $13B US, not $23.1B US
Google didn't lose anything. It still has the same assets and liabilities it had a week ago.
Share price is nothing more than an index of investor confidence in the company, and investors aren't always wise.
Game consoles are effectively closed to hobbyists
Not really true -- every console from the VCS to the PSP has had homebrewed software developed for and executed on it.