We use a steering committee. Tasks are submitted to the committee (the process is kept secret and changed regularly to avoid overuse). The steering committee is composed of a lead technical architect and several managing directors from different backgrounds. The committee's deliberation and actions are highly formalized in order to insure a repeatable process.
In short, we allow all requests to die in committee and never really do anything. Several of my teammates manage an offshore casino in the morning and play MMORPGs during the afternoon. My novel is almost finished, and we've all decided to learn Lojban and use it exclusively in the office as a way to kill time and give the IT department that "outsourced" feel.
Re:That forgotten god from American Gods..
on
Ask Neil Gaiman
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· Score: 1
I thought he was the "hidden hand" of capitalism.
James Branch Cabell
on
Ask Neil Gaiman
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Several articles I've read have listed both you and Robert Heinlein as fans of James Branch Cabell. Since Mr. Heinlein is dead, I was wondering if you have my copy of "Beyond Life" and if so, could I have it back?
Seriously, what do you think of the current state of the language? Are we going to see nothing but Hemingway's curt, journalistic style for everything? Or is there still room in the lexicon for Cabell's florid shibboleths and six dimensional sentence structure?
I offer as the pragmatic language of the future, Toadskin. It's all you need. It has all the power of BrainF**k and all the friendliness of Forth. So let's get those HR systems ported folks!
For those who are not PS worthy. The paper Looks like a great server side file system. This is finally a step away from this whole "file" madness. All storage and IO should be memory mapped, and all execution should be in place. Anything else is just silly.
Ok, this thing is going to weigh 15 pounds, use exotic materials, requires the mass production of Polonium, and it produces 104 kW of heat energy in storage. The use of a nuclear power source means throwing away powercells every 60 days even if the device is not in use. That's going to make these things hard to keep ready for use.
But let's say we overcome all of that. Our boy has his laser gun and is out there on the battle field. Let's take a real stretch and say it's a hot and a dusty battlefield (I understand that's happened once or twice). One of the funny things about light is that it likes to reflect, refract and isn't too adverse to being absorbed by things. So let's say we fire, immediately loosing a significant amount of punch vaporizing dust particles on the way to the target. Along the way we hit a nasty, sharply defined inversion layer that refracts our beam to a brand new target. Let's say the new target happens to have a nice big searchlight with a parabolic mirror. Terrible, random things ensue.
Although I'm not quite the Quidditch player I once was, we do have our share of wizard duels now and again. As an Open Source proponent I would have to say Bravehart would match my experiences, especially the intestine ripping part if not the kilt and sword play.
You're not alone. I've been pulling off the usual miracles for 12 years or so and working with everything from a control system for hundreds of giant mills to control software for sensors and dams across the Colorado river to big, multimillion user per day websites. I wrote a utility that would boot from a floppy and duplicate an HD over a serial port to another machine booted from floppy with no OS in long before anybody had heard of "Ghost" and left it happily churning at the company I built it for with no idea it might be worth something.
But I am just another stupid poser with nothing special to brag about. I never think of the really cool stuff.
Ray Kurzweil was predicting this by 2005 I believe. ( I don't have the book handy ) His next milestone is about 2010 when this same power should be about $1000 bucks.
Hope he's right about the rest of it. I want to live in the Culture
There's always work for people willing to connect one more new whizbang thingy to the venerable old legacy thingy. That means swallowing the latest line of crap enough to understand how it works and applying the same old principles to connect it to the last 30 years' lines of crap.
At the moment that would mean pretending to think XML is cool and managing to emulate enthusiasm about using it to connect websites to TPF systems using J2EE appservers to fill in the gaping holes in that model.
In two years it will probably mean feigning bliss over tying an RFID system to an N1 stack through coreographed webservices using Jini to fill in the gaping holes in that model.
Two years after that it will be whatever replaces Java (and whatever DCOM/DNA/.NET is called by then).
Practice this over and over in a mirror until you can say it with a straight face: "We can leverage the synergies of our existing identity matrix and the XML based workflow engines to provide an improved ROI on our new TPF EAI POC."
That sentence will earn you $150k in the first year. ( That's a business k not 2^10 )
An interesting example of using something other than text for some syntax. And an even better example of the useability approach you mentioned. colorForth
Or project the keyboard synced to the surface in your HMD only. You can see it, but no one else can. And the "keyboard" can be expanded to include macro symbols etc. to speed access to common commands like, "Secure perimeter and loose the hounds..."
Re:Wanted: Biohacker Help
on
Biohackathon
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· Score: 1
Hmm. What exactly are you needing? Something that speaks a particular proprietary protocol with the device? Is the bus some standard? I've done alot of RS422, RS232 and Current loop stuff with various types of actuators and sensors. And protocols from PLCs to Opto22 and Sutron Data Language RTUs as well as bizarre Microcontrollers of various flavors. Is this protocol documented? Typically debugging the driver will take access to the hardware and some sort of appropriate monitor to watch the communication. The rest is pretty trivial.
Or is this something higher level than a device driver?
Or both.
I may not be able to spare enough time for this. I'm sure that if I can't get to this somebody will if the answers to those questions are clear.
The real question is: How do these arbitrary requirements tie to anything that actually matters to a stakeholder? Start off with, "Why should we build this thing?" And move from there.
Requirements like "including multiple inheritance" or "operator overloading" have nothing to do with the usual reasons we build software and should always be questioned. You should go back to your boss for clarification on how these features are expected to add value to the project. His reponse might be an actual requirement if you make him be specific. "Such as the system will have to be reused by ignorant monkeys." In which case you can suggest that only COTS (Commercial-Off-The-Shelf) software be used.
The only exception to this rule is if you are currently working a government project. (Which is what this sounds like.) In which case your boss has already made the decision to buy not build and is stating this in language sure to make procurement agree with him.
there are no working quantum computers (tangible at least.)
Actually there are several prototypes. The latest news is from IBM although the original photo showed that the researchers were using Sun hardware. They've done a bit of photoshop (or GIMP?) magic since to remove the keyboard and logo on the monitor.
Just thinking out loud, but it sounds like the client subscribes to updates from units in a particular "area" (defined however you like) and will automatically be subscribed to the "partial" or "distant" updates for adjacent areas. A client's key allows it to subscribe to exactly one area at a time.
Server side you keep a list of client subscriptions and something like the PropertyChangeListener approach from Java to simplify the updates from your units. I think any solution has these or similar elements, your implementation will depend on what C# can do for you. I don't know anything about that. I used Java links as examples , since I didn't find any C# API links out there.
Please let me know how things go, and I'm interested in feedback on my ideas from more experienced MMPG builders out there.
...researchers in the software process field, are not trying to solve the problem that Lewis lays out.
I would agree to this statement, but I would define what we are solving as a much simpler problem altogether. And I am also suspicious of claims that experience can allow neural networks (or brains) to do something no algorithm can do.
The reason software estimation can be made to work in the real world is that the estimates can be made in to a self-fullfilling prophecy. We prototype the major risks early, and we negotiate to drop features that won't make the schedule. It makes the whole thing more of a craft than a science, but it works.
Slashdot Mirror
We use a steering committee. Tasks are submitted to the committee (the process is kept secret and changed regularly to avoid overuse). The steering committee is composed of a lead technical architect and several managing directors from different backgrounds. The committee's deliberation and actions are highly formalized in order to insure a repeatable process.
In short, we allow all requests to die in committee and never really do anything. Several of my teammates manage an offshore casino in the morning and play MMORPGs during the afternoon. My novel is almost finished, and we've all decided to learn Lojban and use it exclusively in the office as a way to kill time and give the IT department that "outsourced" feel.
I thought he was the "hidden hand" of capitalism.
Several articles I've read have listed both you and Robert Heinlein as fans of James Branch Cabell. Since Mr. Heinlein is dead, I was wondering if you have my copy of "Beyond Life" and if so, could I have it back?
Seriously, what do you think of the current state of the language? Are we going to see nothing but Hemingway's curt, journalistic style for everything? Or is there still room in the lexicon for Cabell's florid shibboleths and six dimensional sentence structure?
The diagrams aren't intended to say anything, they're eye-noise just like the music is ear-noise. You're critiquing the ketchup stains on the table.
If you need anymore clues we're here for ya, buddy.
You'll appreciate whitespace and colorForth then. ;)
I offer as the pragmatic language of the future, Toadskin. It's all you need. It has all the power of BrainF**k and all the friendliness of Forth. So let's get those HR systems ported folks!
This is another great excuse not to add a Winders partition on my laptop! Thanks, Bill!
For those who are not PS worthy.
The paper
Looks like a great server side file system. This is finally a step away from this whole "file" madness. All storage and IO should be memory mapped, and all execution should be in place. Anything else is just silly.
Ok, this thing is going to weigh 15 pounds, use exotic materials, requires the mass production of Polonium, and it produces 104 kW of heat energy in storage. The use of a nuclear power source means throwing away powercells every 60 days even if the device is not in use. That's going to make these things hard to keep ready for use.
But let's say we overcome all of that. Our boy has his laser gun and is out there on the battle field. Let's take a real stretch and say it's a hot and a dusty battlefield (I understand that's happened once or twice). One of the funny things about light is that it likes to reflect, refract and isn't too adverse to being absorbed by things. So let's say we fire, immediately loosing a significant amount of punch vaporizing dust particles on the way to the target. Along the way we hit a nasty, sharply defined inversion layer that refracts our beam to a brand new target. Let's say the new target happens to have a nice big searchlight with a parabolic mirror. Terrible, random things ensue.
This ain't your grandpappy's ricochet.
Somebody's gonna put an eye out.
Although I'm not quite the Quidditch player I once was, we do have our share of wizard duels now and again. As an Open Source proponent I would have to say Bravehart would match my experiences, especially the intestine ripping part if not the kilt and sword play.
Confused by "Dark Energy," "Vacuum Energy," "Dark Matter," and "Exotic Matter?" Here's a great collection of papers. (Mostly from the SNAP project)
The Culture books. Nice, deep characters, great plots and some kick-butt technology.
I'm headed straight for fusion!
;)
http://fusor.net/
Just give me a little time to work out this one last bug...
You're not alone.
I've been pulling off the usual miracles for 12 years or so and working with everything from a control system for hundreds of giant mills to control software for sensors and dams across the Colorado river to big, multimillion user per day websites. I wrote a utility that would boot from a floppy and duplicate an HD over a serial port to another machine booted from floppy with no OS in long before anybody had heard of "Ghost" and left it happily churning at the company I built it for with no idea it might be worth something.
But I am just another stupid poser with nothing special to brag about. I never think of the really cool stuff.
Ray Kurzweil was predicting this by 2005 I believe. ( I don't have the book handy ) His next milestone is about 2010 when this same power should be about $1000 bucks.
Hope he's right about the rest of it. I want to live in the Culture
There's always work for people willing to connect one more new whizbang thingy to the venerable old legacy thingy. That means swallowing the latest line of crap enough to understand how it works and applying the same old principles to connect it to the last 30 years' lines of crap.
At the moment that would mean pretending to think XML is cool and managing to emulate enthusiasm about using it to connect websites to TPF systems using J2EE appservers to fill in the gaping holes in that model.
In two years it will probably mean feigning bliss over tying an RFID system to an N1 stack through coreographed webservices using Jini to fill in the gaping holes in that model.
Two years after that it will be whatever replaces Java (and whatever DCOM/DNA/.NET is called by then).
Practice this over and over in a mirror until you can say it with a straight face: "We can leverage the synergies of our existing identity matrix and the XML based workflow engines to provide an improved ROI on our new TPF EAI POC."
That sentence will earn you $150k in the first year. ( That's a business k not 2^10 )
and both load fast. So much for "The Slashdot Effect"
I taught my daughter rudimetary programming with logo about 2 years ago. I used a web-based implementation. It's a logo applet by Robert Duncan.
An interesting example of using something other than text for some syntax. And an even better example of the useability approach you mentioned. colorForth
Or project the keyboard synced to the surface in your HMD only. You can see it, but no one else can. And the "keyboard" can be expanded to include macro symbols etc. to speed access to common commands like, "Secure perimeter and loose the hounds..."
Hmm. What exactly are you needing? Something that speaks a particular proprietary protocol with the device? Is the bus some standard? I've done alot of RS422, RS232 and Current loop stuff with various types of actuators and sensors. And protocols from PLCs to Opto22 and Sutron Data Language RTUs as well as bizarre Microcontrollers of various flavors. Is this protocol documented? Typically debugging the driver will take access to the hardware and some sort of appropriate monitor to watch the communication. The rest is pretty trivial.
Or is this something higher level than a device driver?
Or both.
I may not be able to spare enough time for this. I'm sure that if I can't get to this somebody will if the answers to those questions are clear.
The real question is: How do these arbitrary requirements tie to anything that actually matters to a stakeholder? Start off with, "Why should we build this thing?" And move from there.
Requirements like "including multiple inheritance" or "operator overloading" have nothing to do with the usual reasons we build software and should always be questioned. You should go back to your boss for clarification on how these features are expected to add value to the project. His reponse might be an actual requirement if you make him be specific. "Such as the system will have to be reused by ignorant monkeys." In which case you can suggest that only COTS (Commercial-Off-The-Shelf) software be used.
The only exception to this rule is if you are currently working a government project. (Which is what this sounds like.) In which case your boss has already made the decision to buy not build and is stating this in language sure to make procurement agree with him.
there are no working quantum computers (tangible at least.)
Actually there are several prototypes. The latest news is from IBM although the original photo showed that the researchers were using Sun hardware. They've done a bit of photoshop (or GIMP?) magic since to remove the keyboard and logo on the monitor.
Just thinking out loud, but it sounds like the client subscribes to updates from units in a particular "area" (defined however you like) and will automatically be subscribed to the "partial" or "distant" updates for adjacent areas. A client's key allows it to subscribe to exactly one area at a time.
Server side you keep a list of client subscriptions and something like the PropertyChangeListener approach from Java to simplify the updates from your units. I think any solution has these or similar elements, your implementation will depend on what C# can do for you. I don't know anything about that. I used Java links as examples , since I didn't find any C# API links out there.
Please let me know how things go, and I'm interested in feedback on my ideas from more experienced MMPG builders out there.
I would agree to this statement, but I would define what we are solving as a much simpler problem altogether. And I am also suspicious of claims that experience can allow neural networks (or brains) to do something no algorithm can do.
The reason software estimation can be made to work in the real world is that the estimates can be made in to a self-fullfilling prophecy. We prototype the major risks early, and we negotiate to drop features that won't make the schedule. It makes the whole thing more of a craft than a science, but it works.