I thought nanotubes were discussed awhile ago and the consensus was that they couldn't easily be produced in significant quantities in a reasonable amount of time.
But as things get more stable and programmers learn how to avoid things like buffer overruns, who's going to need keep somebody on staff for network security?
I had a short job at a gas station. A customer's bill came to $5 and a few pennies. He gave me a ten and I rung it up and hit the cash button. I went to start counting his change and he tossed over a quarter. He was absolutely amazed when I was able to instantly do the math in my head and just hand him a five and however many cents it was. He said he's never run into somebody that was able to do that before. It was a nice compliment until I thought about it and realized that I wasn't that smart, I was just being compared to a bunch of morons. I started a tech job a couple months later.
Coincidently, I recently paid a $9.03 food bill and gave the girl a $10 which she rang up, and then I found a nickel in my pocket so I gave it to her. She had to call her manager over and ask if I was allowed do that. The manager has some common sense and said "Yes", paused for a few seconds, and then told her how much to give me back.
Might be easier to build a room sized refridgeration unit and move the racks in there. Even mom and pop grocery stores have them so they can't cost that much. Condenser maintenance is probably less expensive than maintaining a robot.
usually their stated expectations are followed immediately by my laughter
Must be nice to have that kind of job security;)
What doesn't consistently do it's job correctly is all the other crappy software and drivers installed in any users given system
Drivers are a special case, they technically are part of the system, but just not developed by the people that did the rest of the system. Hardware manufacturers should probably have a closer relationship with MS than most seem to. I know MS has their WHQL but I don't think it's a requirement that drivers be run through that process, but maybe it should be a requirement.
Honestly though it would be nice to see the code for some of the Windows API functions instead of relying on the scant documentation MS provides.
Then you may call me a liar. I always know what the hell I am doing. Unlike others I don't bit-twiddle and otherwise try tricks with any operating system. I let it do it's job, it let's my code do it's job, and everybody get's along.
You haven't stated what OS you're developing for. And if you say Windows, you ARE a liar. Windows doesn't consistently do it's job correctly, so unless you're only writing hello world applications for systems that don't have any hardware aside from a name brand video card (other than ATI) then you MUST have bugs, it's that simple. The OS SHOULD just do it's job, but the OS is also responsible for facilitating communication between your program and the hardware of the computer, be it the video card, NIC, printer, etc. and if any one of those things returns something "funny", and you're relying on the value it returns to process the data or make a decision based on the value, then you can have a major problem unless you have at least a 2:1 ratio of functional code vs. error handling code.
Ok, now I know I've dug myself into a hole concerning programming theories here and the ideal way of how code should work, but what you're saying just isn't practical for the most part in the world of marketing driven deadlines that at least I have to live in (you may be different).
That stat is coming from the company and not independant benchmarking. I'm a little skeptical. I think it would be more reasonable to assume that it might reach 80% of a GeForce4 MX, unless they're counting on the driver doing all the real work and it's running on a dual 2.5GHz CPU.
Bugs? Not that's laughable. I don't accept bugs, I track down and eradicate bugs, I do weird and unexpected shit just to find bugs, and I test it untill my fingers bleed (metaphorically) to just find bugs. No, my code has no bugs when it ships. It's not that hard, just takes a few things called 'diligence', 'responsibility', and 'knowing what the hell you are doing'.
My ass. If you're writing code for Windows, chances are you will never know what the hell you are doing. And if you say you do, you're a liar. If you're writing for DOS 5.0 or an embedded system then yes, maybe you can be right. I don't know about Linux programming pitfalls (at least I admit it).
I also learned first to program in assembly (by hand), then higher languages later.
I learned BASIC first and then jumped over to assembly and then to pascal where I've been ever since. Assembly is valuable, especially in tracking down bugs and tracing through CPU instructions, but it really won't help you write better code to begin with.
Buggy code is just the result of a lazy programmer that doesn't plan ahead and can't handle surprises well.
Surprises such as receiving a function result out of the documented range, or surprises such as the boss now wants to quadruple the size and complexity of the entire program and thinks it should only take a week?
I don't think they'll be able to live down the stigma associated with their company name. They probably should have come back under a different name to at least show that they've changed a little. It was such a disgrace having a trident card or built-in chipset in your computer back in the day.
Simply specify which OS version it will work on, and peg it down to that version. As for hardware incompatability, that's just lousy code.
Ok, so if the system dies while I'm trying to send commands to the printer, who's fault is that? The print drivers, Windows for facilitating the communication, or our fault? What if it only happens on one users specific computer and even by duplicating the exact system setup, it can't be recreated? I just got my home built W2K system completely stable after spending all sorts of time tweaking BIOS settings that control timings. Those settings are in there because even hardware can have problems being 100% compatible.
How do you expect humans to write perfect code when we can't do anything else perfect? It took quite a while for engineers to get bridge building 100%, and yet sometimes unexpected variables were still recently encountered (Tacoma Narrows). And there's a hell of a lot less variables in building physical structures than writing code that has to run side by side with 20+ other programs and not have problems. When physical structures have problems you can fall back on constants such as gravity. There's no promise that the bytes in memory will be the same every time you run your program.
Your a developer? Has a bug ever been found in your code after it's been shipped?
So if I write software today, should I guarentee that it will work will ALL previous versions of Windows with ANY hardware configuration as well as any future versions of both hardware and the OS? I welcome YOU to the real world. You obviously don't write software for a living.
My responsibilities include things like paying bills, for which I need to work for a company that will stay around because they aren't getting sued into oblivion because some customer was stupid enough to open the program's data files in Wordpad and save them back as formatted text. Because that same customer will never admit they did that and if there aren't logfiles showing they did such a thing, you may still have to defend yourself in court, and that costs money.
Anyways, we all know that technological predictions are 100% accurate. As living proof, I'm writing this post on one of the only 5 computers in the world, and I never come close even touching the 640K ceiling.
I have Mandrake running at home. The first thing I did after upgrading to 8.2 was delete all the Mandrake icons it put all over the desktop.
I don't think I'll ever understand why you can publicly be against the very principles of an organization, yet copy everything they do.
On a side not, this isn't just isolated to Mandrake marketing. Look at KDE or Gnome, they both copy a large amount of functionality from Windows. Putting a button in the lower left corner with a K or a footprint on it instead of "Start" does not make it a revolutionary improvement. I was actually surprised how many things were completely identical between Windows and those two desktops when I first installed it. It made it easier to get going but it didn't make it more effecient or organized like I was expecting.
You mean a group of human beings that won't succumb to greed or go mad with power? People like that exists. But they won't get elected/hired because they wouldn't have the experience in lying/cheating/stealing that makes our leaders so lovable.
Ah yes, the one about Taco snotting is quite a gripping documentary, and the various literary works from the Dead Penis Bird leave me pondering the meaning of life, while the never tiring page-widening-post leaves me in stitches every time.
they try to make money/fame/something useful out of it.
Um, I think you've managed to state the goals of everthing any person has ever done. So maybe you should quit your job because it only gets you money. Don't post on slashdot so you have no chance of fame (yeah right), and go shoot yourself since you're probably trying to do something useful with your life.
No, I said toddler proof, not theif proof. A toddler were still manage to stick some pennies in the power supply exhaust grate. I'm just thankful he never found the red switch on the power supply;-)
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I thought nanotubes were discussed awhile ago and the consensus was that they couldn't easily be produced in significant quantities in a reasonable amount of time.
I remember reading an article back in 5th grade (1985) about how NASA was going to have affordable trips on the space shuttle by 1995.
But as things get more stable and programmers learn how to avoid things like buffer overruns, who's going to need keep somebody on staff for network security?
How loud is your stove? I use these new fangled electric models. Do you have to chop wood for yours?
I had a short job at a gas station. A customer's bill came to $5 and a few pennies. He gave me a ten and I rung it up and hit the cash button. I went to start counting his change and he tossed over a quarter. He was absolutely amazed when I was able to instantly do the math in my head and just hand him a five and however many cents it was. He said he's never run into somebody that was able to do that before. It was a nice compliment until I thought about it and realized that I wasn't that smart, I was just being compared to a bunch of morons. I started a tech job a couple months later.
Coincidently, I recently paid a $9.03 food bill and gave the girl a $10 which she rang up, and then I found a nickel in my pocket so I gave it to her. She had to call her manager over and ask if I was allowed do that. The manager has some common sense and said "Yes", paused for a few seconds, and then told her how much to give me back.
Might be easier to build a room sized refridgeration unit and move the racks in there. Even mom and pop grocery stores have them so they can't cost that much. Condenser maintenance is probably less expensive than maintaining a robot.
MS won't improve on them since they (marginally) work as they are.
;-)
Hey, I though you said they work just fine, it's the applications and drivers that don't work right
usually their stated expectations are followed immediately by my laughter
;)
Must be nice to have that kind of job security
What doesn't consistently do it's job correctly is all the other crappy software and drivers installed in any users given system
Drivers are a special case, they technically are part of the system, but just not developed by the people that did the rest of the system. Hardware manufacturers should probably have a closer relationship with MS than most seem to. I know MS has their WHQL but I don't think it's a requirement that drivers be run through that process, but maybe it should be a requirement.
Honestly though it would be nice to see the code for some of the Windows API functions instead of relying on the scant documentation MS provides.
Then you may call me a liar. I always know what the hell I am doing. Unlike others I don't bit-twiddle and otherwise try tricks with any operating system. I let it do it's job, it let's my code do it's job, and everybody get's along.
You haven't stated what OS you're developing for. And if you say Windows, you ARE a liar. Windows doesn't consistently do it's job correctly, so unless you're only writing hello world applications for systems that don't have any hardware aside from a name brand video card (other than ATI) then you MUST have bugs, it's that simple. The OS SHOULD just do it's job, but the OS is also responsible for facilitating communication between your program and the hardware of the computer, be it the video card, NIC, printer, etc. and if any one of those things returns something "funny", and you're relying on the value it returns to process the data or make a decision based on the value, then you can have a major problem unless you have at least a 2:1 ratio of functional code vs. error handling code.
Ok, now I know I've dug myself into a hole concerning programming theories here and the ideal way of how code should work, but what you're saying just isn't practical for the most part in the world of marketing driven deadlines that at least I have to live in (you may be different).
That stat is coming from the company and not independant benchmarking. I'm a little skeptical. I think it would be more reasonable to assume that it might reach 80% of a GeForce4 MX, unless they're counting on the driver doing all the real work and it's running on a dual 2.5GHz CPU.
Bugs? Not that's laughable. I don't accept bugs, I track down and eradicate bugs, I do weird and unexpected shit just to find bugs, and I test it untill my fingers bleed (metaphorically) to just find bugs. No, my code has no bugs when it ships. It's not that hard, just takes a few things called 'diligence', 'responsibility', and 'knowing what the hell you are doing'.
My ass. If you're writing code for Windows, chances are you will never know what the hell you are doing. And if you say you do, you're a liar. If you're writing for DOS 5.0 or an embedded system then yes, maybe you can be right. I don't know about Linux programming pitfalls (at least I admit it).
I also learned first to program in assembly (by hand), then higher languages later.
I learned BASIC first and then jumped over to assembly and then to pascal where I've been ever since. Assembly is valuable, especially in tracking down bugs and tracing through CPU instructions, but it really won't help you write better code to begin with.
Buggy code is just the result of a lazy programmer that doesn't plan ahead and can't handle surprises well.
Surprises such as receiving a function result out of the documented range, or surprises such as the boss now wants to quadruple the size and complexity of the entire program and thinks it should only take a week?
I don't think they'll be able to live down the stigma associated with their company name. They probably should have come back under a different name to at least show that they've changed a little. It was such a disgrace having a trident card or built-in chipset in your computer back in the day.
Simply specify which OS version it will work on, and peg it down to that version. As for hardware incompatability, that's just lousy code.
Ok, so if the system dies while I'm trying to send commands to the printer, who's fault is that? The print drivers, Windows for facilitating the communication, or our fault? What if it only happens on one users specific computer and even by duplicating the exact system setup, it can't be recreated? I just got my home built W2K system completely stable after spending all sorts of time tweaking BIOS settings that control timings. Those settings are in there because even hardware can have problems being 100% compatible.
How do you expect humans to write perfect code when we can't do anything else perfect? It took quite a while for engineers to get bridge building 100%, and yet sometimes unexpected variables were still recently encountered (Tacoma Narrows). And there's a hell of a lot less variables in building physical structures than writing code that has to run side by side with 20+ other programs and not have problems. When physical structures have problems you can fall back on constants such as gravity. There's no promise that the bytes in memory will be the same every time you run your program.
Your a developer? Has a bug ever been found in your code after it's been shipped?
So if I write software today, should I guarentee that it will work will ALL previous versions of Windows with ANY hardware configuration as well as any future versions of both hardware and the OS? I welcome YOU to the real world. You obviously don't write software for a living.
My responsibilities include things like paying bills, for which I need to work for a company that will stay around because they aren't getting sued into oblivion because some customer was stupid enough to open the program's data files in Wordpad and save them back as formatted text. Because that same customer will never admit they did that and if there aren't logfiles showing they did such a thing, you may still have to defend yourself in court, and that costs money.
Thank you very much for pointing that out. I wouldn't want to be a complete fucking moron and take everything literally 8^P
Maybe you've seen too many STNG episodes ;-)
Anyways, we all know that technological predictions are 100% accurate. As living proof, I'm writing this post on one of the only 5 computers in the world, and I never come close even touching the 640K ceiling.
I have Mandrake running at home. The first thing I did after upgrading to 8.2 was delete all the Mandrake icons it put all over the desktop.
I don't think I'll ever understand why you can publicly be against the very principles of an organization, yet copy everything they do.
On a side not, this isn't just isolated to Mandrake marketing. Look at KDE or Gnome, they both copy a large amount of functionality from Windows. Putting a button in the lower left corner with a K or a footprint on it instead of "Start" does not make it a revolutionary improvement. I was actually surprised how many things were completely identical between Windows and those two desktops when I first installed it. It made it easier to get going but it didn't make it more effecient or organized like I was expecting.
Duh, it's what you call an AC when they're posting from their car while driving down the I70.
What, there's no Perl script on CPAN for this yet? Should just be a one-liner.
You mean a group of human beings that won't succumb to greed or go mad with power? People like that exists. But they won't get elected/hired because they wouldn't have the experience in lying/cheating/stealing that makes our leaders so lovable.
I saw bourne-identity listed in the playlist on the picture. Has this movie been released on DVD yet?
You could live in Rochester, NY and then you could be dominated by three failing companies - Bausch & Lomb, Xerox, and Kodak.
Ah yes, the one about Taco snotting is quite a gripping documentary, and the various literary works from the Dead Penis Bird leave me pondering the meaning of life, while the never tiring page-widening-post leaves me in stitches every time.
they try to make money/fame/something useful out of it.
Um, I think you've managed to state the goals of everthing any person has ever done. So maybe you should quit your job because it only gets you money. Don't post on slashdot so you have no chance of fame (yeah right), and go shoot yourself since you're probably trying to do something useful with your life.
No, I said toddler proof, not theif proof. A toddler were still manage to stick some pennies in the power supply exhaust grate. I'm just thankful he never found the red switch on the power supply ;-)