I've actually been seeing Linux based POS systems in a few places in Seattle, notably I believe Fred Meyer (grocery), and I think Target, but I'm not sure about them...
So, if you're gonna talk about embedded markets, there's probably some Linux-y aspect (or other embedded OS's) to it as well...
I believe the big dogs buy Windows because it feels warm and fuzzy to have a 50,000+ people (M$) army support it, so it makes sense if you can afford M$.. however smaller businesses may resort to things like Linux for their solutions...
IBM is huge on Linux, so they provide probably an equal amount of support if you can afford it.... I guess that almost makes the embedded market a moot point...
Desktops, however, are another entirely MS story...
This is why companies like Powerset are successfully raising money (http://venturebeat.com/2007/02/12/powerset-raisin g-more-money/) to implement natural language interfaces to engines like Google's. Google currently uses statistical analysis and relatively simple parsing/indexing of documents of the keywords you type in the search box (and of course, PageRank, their key invention), to get you results. And it does a decent enough job at it.
The next step up from this is to implement natural language parses (i.e. spoken/written English will be used to ask "the Google" or the next "Oracle" (no pun to Larry Ellison)) that will be mapped ever more precisely to documents containing relevant information, and your searches will get even better, more specific results back.
The keyword here is "mapped" - how does one map natural language queries (questions or statements) to documents? That's the job of academia, creative entrepreneurs/engineers, etc. There are already huge inroads made into this area by Cyc Corp (cyc.com), for the last 10+ years, Powerset is another one (I have yet to see a demo of their stuff), and I hear Google is also looking at NL processing...
So instead of typing "knight night difference" (which will get you Knight Rider results), you could type "What is the difference between a knight and a night?" and get a document that describes the etymology of both words, the semantic differences, etc. This is probably a long stretch from now, but it is possible to generate somewhat meaningful answer to queries like this, nonetheless....
The tagging (categorization), of documents is, I believe, a necessary step toward providing better results to any types of queries, so the final approach will be something like tagging (possibly all) existing and future documents with meaningful (or better yet, standardized) 'semantic' tags that can describe anything and everything in any language, whether it is a concept or a physical reality, as well as improving the NL parsers to be able to interpret/parse those tags and provide meaningful answers to a question. This is just my intuition, plus a 10 year experience as a software engineer talking, so I could be wrong as I have no huge formal experience in this area of linguistics as others may have...
I don't think the web is doomed or has reached its potential yet. It may take YEARS to get to the point I just described above, but I think I'll live to see it (I'm 31...).
> I do agree with you that their rate of growth is not sustainable, but I also suspect that as soon as it slows, people will >immediately go "Google's hiring is down! Are they in trouble? Are they just not good enough to stand up to Microsoft after >all?"
The 'people' (a.k.a. Wall Street "analysts") will only say that when Google's 10-Q or 10-K shows they did not meet 'expectations' by oh, $0.001 dollars per share:)! Headcount matters, but isn't always necessarily indicative of rev./profit growth. If and when they begin experiencing slowdowns, they'll either lay people off (which is honorable) or begin to slave drive the existing staff (less honorable). Either way, this is ways off on the horizon for Google...
Google is still, for now, in cult building mode. The only thing that's going to rattle their cage is some sort of genuinely improved search engine, which will inevitably have to use some PageRank type of algorithm to figure out good results, as well as perhaps add a natural language interface - so that people who can write proper english, will get better results (as well as more targeted advertisements) back. None of this is very easily solvable (Cycorp.com is a pioneer in this field, and they've been at NL parsing for a while).
Whatever. At the point of analysing whether to adopt something or not - everything is a possibility. Therefore, they should have ditched windows in lieu of MS-DOS 6.22 15 years ago because Windows was a grand experiment, a science project, a possibility, etc.
>... I am blown away that with all of our current problems -- homelessness and crime on > the home front, war fighting and terrorism abroad -- our government is seriously going to spend this much money on upgrading > peoples' televisions."
Do us a favor and crawl out from under the rock you are living in.
> 1) Computer Science. A purely theoretical and heavily mathematical course that covers all aspects of general computing for > those who want a career in research or academia that aims to produce people like Doug Englebart, Alan Kay, Edmund Djikstra, > and Niklaus Wirth. > > 2) Computer Systems Engineering. Geared towards what used to be called "Systems Analysts", i.e. people who know how to > define requirements, and then convert them into a working system of arbitrary complexity (i.e. from small office to > world-spanning mega-corporation) that _does what the customer wants_. > > 3) Software Engineering. Both the theoretical and practical aspects of designing _and implementing_ software for everything > from small embedded systems to vast n-tier multi-user set-ups, hugely parallel systems, etc. Also includes a module on > human-computer interfaces, i.e. writing stuff that people will actually want to use instead of doing so because they.
2 & 3 can be and are taught in M.S. degrees in software engineering, like at CMU or SeattleU. You take someone who has a CS degree, with a M.S. in software engineering, and project management skills (e.g. like can be gained from particular MBA courses), and 15+ years of experience - there's your computer systems/software engineering guru. He or she will understand most of what needs to be done to pull off a software system, how you can fail, what to do to not fail, etc.
I even think a CS with enough industry experience (in software engineering), and an MBA is even more useful.
As for just #1 - I think there is no 'blurring' between science/engineering - engineering is applying science. But where did "science" come from? Probably some engineering trial that either failed or didn't work as well as it should & needed more clarification. It is not like scientists (Ph.D's) come up with problems from thin air. The problems typically originate in engineering and are elaborated by dedicated teams of Ph.D.'s who specialize in certain areas. E.g. I want to encrypt my data but don't know how. I could invent a proprietary encryption algorithm and hope it will resist attacks. Or I could use one developed by a cryptography expert like Schneier or the guys who invented Rijndael - all of whom are cryptography _scientists_ (Ph.D. or not, doesn't matter - they know their shit). However, the problem of protecting data by encrypting it did not originate with Schneier nor the Rijndael guys. He did not "invent" encryption by sitting in a room and playing scientist on his computer.
Engineers (the guys without the Ph.D's) who may have worked on protecting data by encryption some time ago, whenever that was, probably failed to create a good enough algorithm, which then people like Schneier, Rivest, Shamir, etc, picked up and with their mighty intellect, figured out how to solve (and I might add, bank on it) better than someone who did not have the time/intellect/effort.
This is why I never understood why people love to make science vs. engineering distinctions - they do not make sense (to me). It's like the chicken/egg problem - which came first?
> "We don't have time for science projects in state government," he says
Neither should the voters of the great State of Illinois have any patience for ignorant state government employees who preclude any possibility of something that will, in the long term, inevitably pay off as an IT investment. Linux is anything but a science project. It is already in use in other governments throughout the world, much poorer than the Illinois state government. It is also in use by super-large corporations, here in the U.S. and worldwide.
Then again, I'm not in Illinois (I live in Washington), and I hope Illinois voters read this garbage and vote for incumbents who will not hire ignorant, incompetent government staff such as the one who made this statement, which in the end will end up costing the State of Illinois leaps and bounds beyond the cost of upgrading to Linux now.
Microsoft undoubtedly makes the best desktop applications (e.g. Office). They have yet to deliver on the best operating system. Vista just isn't it. The next best thing from Microsoft will be a UNIX-like operating system, with a Windows XP emulator, as Apple did with Rosetta for OS 9 on their new platform - OS X. Since supporting hardware initially is going to be a bitch, they can start with the most popular hardware up to a few years old. I know it sounds unrealistic, but what else can they do to renew their public image and instill the coolness they once had 20+ years ago?
1) liquidate all your capital assets 3) put proceeds in a bank account, offshore, anonymously if possible, or hide it real well somewhere (bury the gold bullion somewhere) 4) violate the patent by promoting your project 5) sleep every night in a different location. Do not repeat a location unless you've been to at least 364 other locations previously (or better yet, 364*2+1) 6) be prepared to move to a warm location like San Diego, Mexico, Hawaii, where you can bum on the street while your project takes off, becomes so big and gains eventual acceptance like anti-DRM-ed media is about to.
Somewhere along the way, if you are married, divorce your wife, pay her alimony till she gets a job, and leave some cash for the children. Only in this 'revolutionary' manner will you get a blessing from MS. Of course, whether you should do this, is entirely up to your imagination.
Merit and seniority are only part of what describes market value (decided by supply/demand). This is how the real world works, not really according to merit, or seniority, or nobleness alone (or some combination of those thereof, which play into supply and demand). Economics seems to be merciless with regards to teacher's pay. I guess that's why they say you really gotta love what you do, even if you're going to be doing it for 'next to nothing' in terms of a financial payoff...
> Nah. If capitalism has taught me anything, it's that it's easier to force someone else to be educated and do all the thinking for > you. That way you can be ignorant of actual effort required to do a particular task and solve all problems with a whip.
Condi, is that you hiding in there? Nah. You wouldn't pick Mandelbrot as a/. nickname, that's a dead giveaway for you.
Seriously, stop describing the U.S. foreign policy..;)
So the real dilemma here isn't whether Americans are lazy or not - it is why your Mexican cousin married the lazy American. I'm sure it is because she wanted to show the lazy Americans how to get off their lazy American asses and do hard work, right?:)
Let's make this country the #1 democracy in the world all over again. Let everyone know that feasible voting solutions exist in the here and now and are solved with current technology!
>Other than becoming rather invasive (like installing Squid with customized screening setups) is there a way to effectively block >MySpace from being accessed at a business?
If the job gets done, well and on time - then stop bitching about people surfing. Being productive for 8 hrs straight (short of 1 hr for lunch) is a utopia many employers dream of, especially if it has to do with doing the same task(concept) repetitively. You never get a different result by doing the same thing, so naturally, you will eventually get bored, whether you're a programmer, analyst, whatever....
If someone, on the other hand, provably surfs the net (check your company's network logs, you do have them, no?) so much so that his performance is consistently impeded by his, at this point, internet addiction - then apply your company's disciplinary policy appropriately (you do have policies too, no?).
Blanket statements like "web surfing impedes productivity" and designing unrefined policies around such statements can only discourage/anatgonize productive employees who are able to surf as well as work productively, if they happen to ever get caught in the HR policies net. Most office space/white collar computer-related type of work can get incredibly boring. Whether management likes to look good by appearing curt and managerial and reprimanding everyone for anything slightly in violation of the policy, or be relaxed and only deal with problems as they arise instead of being dickheaded about it, will set the tone, overall mood and atmosphere of the company you work for.
Instant example - I'm writing this between bouts of programming a GE Fanuc PLC with Ladder Logic - something I had to learn on the job, and have only done in a single class in college. Once you get the gist of Ladder Logic programming - it becomes a mind-numbingly boring task having to write LL functions that process input, apply the function and produce output. I'm gonna get what I need to get done regardless of whether I surf, reply to/. or anything, because that is what I agreed to do when they started depositing monthly paychecks into my checking account. Now if someone chooses to call me "unproductive" because I am on slashdot in the meantime in spite of a job well done - well, that is entirely their problem.
Not making these employee/manager behavioral distinctions leads to two extremes - the sweatshop and the ideal company... Depending on your lucky stars, you are somewhere inbetween, hopefully more toward the ideal company than not.
DRM is attempting to solve an ethical issue via technological means. Kind of like using trigger locks on revolvers and pistols to stop someone from killing people...
The only sad thing is that it takes the creators of such futile technologies approximately a decade of losing face before they give in to decreased or no revenue, and/or outright failure of such technologies.
I'd say if you're programming on widows, you need to find a way to replace the defunct parent process by forking yourself into a parent... but this is impossible since the child process(es) will absolutely refuse to have their defunct parent re-forked by some other forker who's coming in from a different, unsafe, unprotected location.
Thus threading in lightly, and establishing shared values with the children whose parent has defuncted might be your only option of success when programming on widows...
So true... C is compact, simple syntax, nothing is overloaded... C++ tried to be too many things to too many people. It certainly achieved its purpose but at the cost of alienating a huge developer base right in the arms of Java and its ilk...
C lives to this day. As long as computers remain architecturally the same, C is going to hang around for a long time, much past its current 30+ year mark for all types of low-level applications. Yes, it will be supplanted by Java ME to some extent, but not completely replaced. Hell, I still see old GE Fanuc PLC's we have that run C code, and have been in production for years:)... plugged in, collecting dust... but running nonetheless.
Slashdot Mirror
It's called a buyout.
I've actually been seeing Linux based POS systems in a few places in Seattle, notably I believe Fred Meyer (grocery), and I think Target, but I'm not sure about them ...
So, if you're gonna talk about embedded markets, there's probably some Linux-y aspect (or other embedded OS's) to it as well...
I believe the big dogs buy Windows because it feels warm and fuzzy to have a 50,000+ people (M$) army support it, so it makes sense if you can afford M$.. however smaller businesses may resort to things like Linux for their solutions...
IBM is huge on Linux, so they provide probably an equal amount of support if you can afford it.... I guess that almost makes the embedded market a moot point...
Desktops, however, are another entirely MS story...
This is why companies like Powerset are successfully raising money (http://venturebeat.com/2007/02/12/powerset-raisin g-more-money/) to implement natural language interfaces to engines like Google's. Google currently uses statistical analysis and relatively simple parsing/indexing of documents of the keywords you type in the search box (and of course, PageRank, their key invention), to get you results. And it does a decent enough job at it.
The next step up from this is to implement natural language parses (i.e. spoken/written English will be used to ask "the Google" or the next "Oracle" (no pun to Larry Ellison)) that will be mapped ever more precisely to documents containing relevant information, and your searches will get even better, more specific results back.
The keyword here is "mapped" - how does one map natural language queries (questions or statements) to documents? That's the job of academia, creative entrepreneurs/engineers, etc. There are already huge inroads made into this area by Cyc Corp (cyc.com), for the last 10+ years, Powerset is another one (I have yet to see a demo of their stuff), and I hear Google is also looking at NL processing...
So instead of typing "knight night difference" (which will get you Knight Rider results), you could type "What is the difference between a knight and a night?" and get a document that describes the etymology of both words, the semantic differences, etc. This is probably a long stretch from now, but it is possible to generate somewhat meaningful answer to queries like this, nonetheless....
The tagging (categorization), of documents is, I believe, a necessary step toward providing better results to any types of queries, so the final approach will be something like tagging (possibly all) existing and future documents with meaningful (or better yet, standardized) 'semantic' tags that can describe anything and everything in any language, whether it is a concept or a physical reality, as well as improving the NL parsers to be able to interpret/parse those tags and provide meaningful answers to a question. This is just my intuition, plus a 10 year experience as a software engineer talking, so I could be wrong as I have no huge formal experience in this area of linguistics as others may have...
I don't think the web is doomed or has reached its potential yet. It may take YEARS to get to the point I just described above, but I think I'll live to see it (I'm 31...).
> I do agree with you that their rate of growth is not sustainable, but I also suspect that as soon as it slows, people will
:)! Headcount matters, but isn't always necessarily indicative of rev./profit growth. If and when they begin experiencing slowdowns, they'll either lay people off (which is honorable) or begin to slave drive the existing staff (less honorable). Either way, this is ways off on the horizon for Google...
>immediately go "Google's hiring is down! Are they in trouble? Are they just not good enough to stand up to Microsoft after
>all?"
The 'people' (a.k.a. Wall Street "analysts") will only say that when Google's 10-Q or 10-K shows they did not meet 'expectations' by oh, $0.001 dollars per share
Google is still, for now, in cult building mode. The only thing that's going to rattle their cage is some sort of genuinely improved search engine, which will inevitably have to use some PageRank type of algorithm to figure out good results, as well as perhaps add a natural language interface - so that people who can write proper english, will get better results (as well as more targeted advertisements) back. None of this is very easily solvable (Cycorp.com is a pioneer in this field, and they've been at NL parsing for a while).
"Big Love" x 2....
Whatever. At the point of analysing whether to adopt something or not - everything is a possibility. Therefore, they should have ditched windows in lieu of MS-DOS 6.22 15 years ago because Windows was a grand experiment, a science project, a possibility, etc.
Nice try though.
> ... I am blown away that with all of our current problems -- homelessness and crime on
> the home front, war fighting and terrorism abroad -- our government is seriously going to spend this much money on upgrading
> peoples' televisions."
Do us a favor and crawl out from under the rock you are living in.
> 1) Computer Science. A purely theoretical and heavily mathematical course that covers all aspects of general computing for
:).
> those who want a career in research or academia that aims to produce people like Doug Englebart, Alan Kay, Edmund Djikstra,
> and Niklaus Wirth.
>
> 2) Computer Systems Engineering. Geared towards what used to be called "Systems Analysts", i.e. people who know how to
> define requirements, and then convert them into a working system of arbitrary complexity (i.e. from small office to
> world-spanning mega-corporation) that _does what the customer wants_.
>
> 3) Software Engineering. Both the theoretical and practical aspects of designing _and implementing_ software for everything
> from small embedded systems to vast n-tier multi-user set-ups, hugely parallel systems, etc. Also includes a module on
> human-computer interfaces, i.e. writing stuff that people will actually want to use instead of doing so because they.
2 & 3 can be and are taught in M.S. degrees in software engineering, like at CMU or SeattleU. You take someone who has a CS degree, with a M.S. in software engineering, and project management skills (e.g. like can be gained from particular MBA courses), and 15+ years of experience - there's your computer systems/software engineering guru. He or she will understand most of what needs to be done to pull off a software system, how you can fail, what to do to not fail, etc.
I even think a CS with enough industry experience (in software engineering), and an MBA is even more useful.
As for just #1 - I think there is no 'blurring' between science/engineering - engineering is applying science. But where did "science" come from? Probably some engineering trial that either failed or didn't work as well as it should & needed more clarification. It is not like scientists (Ph.D's) come up with problems from thin air. The problems typically originate in engineering and are elaborated by dedicated teams of Ph.D.'s who specialize in certain areas. E.g. I want to encrypt my data but don't know how. I could invent a proprietary encryption algorithm and hope it will resist attacks. Or I could use one developed by a cryptography expert like Schneier or the guys who invented Rijndael - all of whom are cryptography _scientists_ (Ph.D. or not, doesn't matter - they know their shit). However, the problem of protecting data by encrypting it did not originate with Schneier nor the Rijndael guys. He did not "invent" encryption by sitting in a room and playing scientist on his computer.
Engineers (the guys without the Ph.D's) who may have worked on protecting data by encryption some time ago, whenever that was, probably failed to create a good enough algorithm, which then people like Schneier, Rivest, Shamir, etc, picked up and with their mighty intellect, figured out how to solve (and I might add, bank on it) better than someone who did not have the time/intellect/effort.
This is why I never understood why people love to make science vs. engineering distinctions - they do not make sense (to me). It's like the chicken/egg problem - which came first?
Hope I make sense
> "We don't have time for science projects in state government," he says
Neither should the voters of the great State of Illinois have any patience for ignorant state government employees who preclude any possibility of something that will, in the long term, inevitably pay off as an IT investment. Linux is anything but a science project. It is already in use in other governments throughout the world, much poorer than the Illinois state government. It is also in use by super-large corporations, here in the U.S. and worldwide.
Then again, I'm not in Illinois (I live in Washington), and I hope Illinois voters read this garbage and vote for incumbents who will not hire ignorant, incompetent government staff such as the one who made this statement, which in the end will end up costing the State of Illinois leaps and bounds beyond the cost of upgrading to Linux now.
Microsoft undoubtedly makes the best desktop applications (e.g. Office). They have yet to deliver on the best operating system. Vista just isn't it. The next best thing from Microsoft will be a UNIX-like operating system, with a Windows XP emulator, as Apple did with Rosetta for OS 9 on their new platform - OS X. Since supporting hardware initially is going to be a bitch, they can start with the most popular hardware up to a few years old. I know it sounds unrealistic, but what else can they do to renew their public image and instill the coolness they once had 20+ years ago?
there go the free gourmet lunches at GOOG ... Looking forward to mass-produced fast-food, McDonalds style. Would you like fries with that?
Unless they buy Viacom, they will have to pay up and/or remove infringments. Or buy a congressman and change the law.
1) liquidate all your capital assets
3) put proceeds in a bank account, offshore, anonymously if possible, or hide it real well somewhere (bury the gold bullion somewhere)
4) violate the patent by promoting your project
5) sleep every night in a different location. Do not repeat a location unless you've been to at least 364 other locations previously (or better yet, 364*2+1)
6) be prepared to move to a warm location like San Diego, Mexico, Hawaii, where you can bum on the street while your project takes off, becomes so big and gains eventual acceptance like anti-DRM-ed media is about to.
Somewhere along the way, if you are married, divorce your wife, pay her alimony till she gets a job, and leave some cash for the children. Only in this 'revolutionary' manner will you get a blessing from MS. Of course, whether you should do this, is entirely up to your imagination.
Merit and seniority are only part of what describes market value (decided by supply/demand). This is how the real world works, not really according to merit, or seniority, or nobleness alone (or some combination of those thereof, which play into supply and demand). Economics seems to be merciless with regards to teacher's pay. I guess that's why they say you really gotta love what you do, even if you're going to be doing it for 'next to nothing' in terms of a financial payoff...
> Nah. If capitalism has taught me anything, it's that it's easier to force someone else to be educated and do all the thinking for
/. nickname, that's a dead giveaway for you.
;)
> you. That way you can be ignorant of actual effort required to do a particular task and solve all problems with a whip.
Condi, is that you hiding in there? Nah. You wouldn't pick Mandelbrot as a
Seriously, stop describing the U.S. foreign policy..
So the real dilemma here isn't whether Americans are lazy or not - it is why your Mexican cousin married the lazy American. I'm sure it is because she wanted to show the lazy Americans how to get off their lazy American asses and do hard work, right? :)
Then it is a matter of belief and I like to believe such crazy ideas about democracy in the US of A then.
What is your (ideal or not) definition of a successful democracy then? India?
(and I searched through the comments, FYI :) - GOOD RIDDANCE!
What we need is voting solutions like this:
http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/our_solution
or this:
http://punchscan.org/faq.php
or some combination of the above two.
Let's make this country the #1 democracy in the world all over again. Let everyone know that feasible voting solutions exist in the here and now and are solved with current technology!
>Other than becoming rather invasive (like installing Squid with customized screening setups) is there a way to effectively block
/. or anything, because that is what I agreed to do when they started depositing monthly paychecks into my checking account. Now if someone chooses to call me "unproductive" because I am on slashdot in the meantime in spite of a job well done - well, that is entirely their problem.
>MySpace from being accessed at a business?
If the job gets done, well and on time - then stop bitching about people surfing. Being productive for 8 hrs straight (short of 1 hr for lunch) is a utopia many employers dream of, especially if it has to do with doing the same task(concept) repetitively. You never get a different result by doing the same thing, so naturally, you will eventually get bored, whether you're a programmer, analyst, whatever....
If someone, on the other hand, provably surfs the net (check your company's network logs, you do have them, no?) so much so that his performance is consistently impeded by his, at this point, internet addiction - then apply your company's disciplinary policy appropriately (you do have policies too, no?).
Blanket statements like "web surfing impedes productivity" and designing unrefined policies around such statements can only discourage/anatgonize productive employees who are able to surf as well as work productively, if they happen to ever get caught in the HR policies net. Most office space/white collar computer-related type of work can get incredibly boring. Whether management likes to look good by appearing curt and managerial and reprimanding everyone for anything slightly in violation of the policy, or be relaxed and only deal with problems as they arise instead of being dickheaded about it, will set the tone, overall mood and atmosphere of the company you work for.
Instant example - I'm writing this between bouts of programming a GE Fanuc PLC with Ladder Logic - something I had to learn on the job, and have only done in a single class in college. Once you get the gist of Ladder Logic programming - it becomes a mind-numbingly boring task having to write LL functions that process input, apply the function and produce output. I'm gonna get what I need to get done regardless of whether I surf, reply to
Not making these employee/manager behavioral distinctions leads to two extremes - the sweatshop and the ideal company... Depending on your lucky stars, you are somewhere inbetween, hopefully more toward the ideal company than not.
G'day.
DRM is attempting to solve an ethical issue via technological means. Kind of like using trigger locks on revolvers and pistols to stop someone from killing people...
The only sad thing is that it takes the creators of such futile technologies approximately a decade of losing face before they give in to decreased or no revenue, and/or outright failure of such technologies.
Neither does programming in search of the almighty Benjamins and/or fame ("Registered Projects: 142,309 Registered Users: 1,521,643").
I'd say if you're programming on widows, you need to find a way to replace the defunct parent process by forking yourself into a parent... but this is impossible since the child process(es) will absolutely refuse to have their defunct parent re-forked by some other forker who's coming in from a different, unsafe, unprotected location. Thus threading in lightly, and establishing shared values with the children whose parent has defuncted might be your only option of success when programming on widows...
Microsoft is king in the application development (Office) domain. They really oughta stick to that.
:)
Now if we could just redo Windows Vista and turn it into a UNIX-based OS with a nice windowing GUI...
are forced to reinvent it. The corollary to this is that those who do not understand economics, are eventually forced to "reinvent" it.
IEEE was predicting just that about two years ago.
That's right, you can kill the 'man' (or messenger), but the idea lives forever ;).
So true... C is compact, simple syntax, nothing is overloaded... C++ tried to be too many things to too many people. It certainly achieved its purpose but at the cost of alienating a huge developer base right in the arms of Java and its ilk...
:)... plugged in, collecting dust... but running nonetheless.
C lives to this day. As long as computers remain architecturally the same, C is going to hang around for a long time, much past its current 30+ year mark for all types of low-level applications. Yes, it will be supplanted by Java ME to some extent, but not completely replaced. Hell, I still see old GE Fanuc PLC's we have that run C code, and have been in production for years