ICANN (Bildt, et al) has apparently laid out plans to declare that anti-democratic behavior is a good thing for a public non-profit institution that affects *all* our lives. The arrogance is astounding. The elitist board must move toward establishing direct democracy where all people of the world can participate, without their stinkin' poll tax.
on the issue of software elegance. There is a middle ground on this issue, where code beauty/maintainability/simplicity can be weighed against expediency/commerce/requirements-meeting and a healthy outcome emerges. Of course, this almost always involves a political fracas with both Crap Coders who don't give a sh*t about the quality of their work as well as the Elegance Nazi's who won't accept anything that's not absolutely perfect.
The best programmers, IMHO, are the ones who have the experience and social skills to influence both sides to "cut the crap" and get on with creating reasonably elegant and high-quality software in a reasonably fast manner.
As long as non-commercial interests control at least 0.1% (arbitrary) of the Internet, and as long as web standards continue to be generally adhered to, alternative politics wonks and grassroots movement organizers will have more than enough strength to carry on their fights. I think in reality, no matter how the corporations shake things out amongst themselves, that websites personal and non-profit in nature will remain a large percentage (even if just a minority) of the web.
It can even be argued that we're entering the "Age of the Non-profit" (alongside with electronic governance) on the web, with open/free software being widely adopted (kind of all-of-a-sudden, from a public perspective) and the spotlight moving away from the dot-com's. Those "Business 2.0/Fast Company" magazines have to have something to write about!:)
I can't set up a travel agency and call it American Express
Well, certainly your point is obvious. I'm speaking of the tremendous hassles that the multitudes of smaller businesses will have to go through in defending their trademarks. Not all corporations are big and wealthy-to-the-extreme.
I have yet to see anyone present a case for what these technical considerations are...
To any developer worth their salt, the technical considerations should be obvious. Not all techincal considerations are made in the vacuum of simply what a machine or a software system/design can handle. The social and economic costs as a result of any technological change is likewise considered. Deflating an economic market, f*cking trademarks and small businesspeople, and in general, creating obvious humongous brand/naming confusion in the public midsts, all in the name of some thoughtless, absolutist freedom is just unacceptable. Those are indeed technical considerations!
gTLD's are "scarce" for the sake of trademark/idea protection. Unlimited gTLD's removes all value, not just economically speaking but also makes trademark enforcement nearly impossible, thus causing too many problems for the small business trademark holder. What's the point of owning a gTLD you cannot defend from savages all over the world?
And there's even technical considerations with unlimited gTLD's that some (Auerbach) claim are virtually nonexistent, but that is all basically the equivalent of "talking out the arse."
Re:There is a downside, however, as the worker...
on
Extreme Telecommuting
·
· Score: 2
I read your article--great work! I myself deal with the depression by making sure I take at least a couple significant breaks during the day (one of which involves walking or other form of exercise). Also, having a bottle of St. John's Wort nearby doesn't hurt!:)
I agree about the lack of social interaction being a drag (and a damper on my personality), but the rewards outweigh this, in my estimation. I still meet people when I *have* to go out.:)
A little over a year ago, I moved to Fremont, CA from North Carolina to take a regular (non-telecommuting) senior development job at a 4-yr-old software startup. After the not-unexpected layoff this past January, I almost immediately became a telecommuting developer for a software startup near Pittsburgh, PA. Imagine this: Working in California but for a Pennsylvania company. A couple years ago, this would have sounded very strange, as the reverse makes a whole lot more sense!
Since this was my first telecommuting position, there were a lot of things to adjust to. First, I had to spend a few months away from home (and my spouse) working in PA (with a harsh winter... well to me, anyway) to learn about the requirements, designs and code I was to work on. Second, I didn't exactly have a home office that was suitable or comfortable enough for doing all-day software development at home. Thus, there was quite a large investment of travel time and expenses just to get it all going.
But of course, with the recent slowdown in the jobs market, I've come to the conclusion that I need to add more short-term or part-time contracts to the mix, in case the current job goes south. If anyone is looking for an excellent Delphi developer with 12 years of overall experience who rarely faced a challenge he couldn't handle, take a look at my resume... you won't be disappointed.
Well, Mallrats beats most of the lame movies (of any genre!) released this summer. And the version you saw on cable was probably the lame-o dub-over that removed the original, critical dialogue that made this movie so damned funny. I'm not saying it's the funniest comedy ever made, but I'd still say it's a must-see in terms of 90's comedies.
The gist of the problem with unlimited TLD's is dissolution and confusion, the former being the worst. Why should small business owners have their unique business names dissolved by a mountain of competing dot-whatever's when they got theirname.com first? It's already a significant cost to purchase "theirname" in.com,.net,.org and the other common TLD's. Taking the limits off TLD's dissolves the value of the existing ones to the point of "what's the point of having a web presence or even a company?". This all goes beyond trademarks... it's the value of a _brand_ that's at stake!
Hmmm... I must be a 15 yr. old at heart, as I'm playing Destructo-man with the American political system. The Internet is the new playground for those of us who see great ill with the world, and wish to positively remake it.
Intellectual progress, and more specifically, progress in the "art" of software engineering, is not occurring at anywhere close to the rate of Moore's Law. "Perfect" hardware coexisting with flawed, messy, human-designed software is our destiny. Technological progress will for a very long time have humankind (and its needs and quirks) as a damper.
Biological organisms are machines! Devoting energies into enhancing our hardware/software should take vast precedence over building "cute" little AI robots.
You want a singularity? We've already passed through multitudes of these in world history. Nothing new. The latest is the widespread expansion of the Internet. The grids it will inspire will link the collective of human thinking into one great glowing empire of public knowledge. And that's without "cute" little AI robots.
The "future" doesn't happen if we the people don't let it. Effective social and political efforts can draw boundaries to other extremist escapades. The real exponential trend in our world has been increased democratization. As long as real people are in control, we can't go wrong.
These "Cybernetic Totalists" who actually want their singularity to occur are anti-human or extremist/libertarian in their desire for a total collapse of the social fabric of civilization. Real people can put a halt to their nonsense.
The San Francisco CBS affiliate carried yesterday's Free Sklyarov protest in its 6:30 and 11:00 newscasts. Perhaps CBS is the US network to trust in these matters.
See me in clips at my site (bottom of page). I'm the nerd with the bulging belly.:) [wait, "nerd" isn't a good distinguishing factor in this group]
I think we (100+ of us) were very effective in making a lot of noice about the cause to either repeal the DMCA or at least clean up the stuff related to fair use. We can't let another Dmitry be arrested with the unconstitutional provisions of this bad law.
The main downer of course is that there wasn't a lot more people (esp. programmers) there. I say it's high time for programmers to shake off their apathy and become Free Speech activists. Our country needs us.
The factor that has to be considered with SV-area layoffs is that, with the very high cost-of-living, many of the laid-off have been packing up and leaving the area (and it appears many H1-B's will be deported). Besides thankfully having reduced traffic and some apartment rents falling somewhat, the job market will soon return to a point where we had the same ratio of applicants to jobs that would be expected in a healthy SV tech economy. Factor into that that we're about to pull out of the economic slump (by most accounts), then you quickly return to a job seekers' market again. Another factor is that many who "got screwed" the first time (and who don't want to deal with the cost-of-living hell again) mostly won't return to SV again.
I sent this email to programmers I know in the SF bay area:
Hello fellow bay-area programmers/technologists,
I'm thinking of attending the Free Sklyarov protest on Monday in SF. This is an important moment in our nation's history to defend Free Speech and fair use rights. Check out the links below for more info.
Flyer that sums it all up: http://www.tabinda.com/freedmitry/free_dmitry_flye r_20010726.html
Info about the rally: http://www.mycgiserver.com/~byoungvt/meeting.html
If you have a website, join the EFF blue ribbon campaign: http://www.eff.org/br/
Note: I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone with this political e-mail, but I feel *very* strongly about this and all programmers should consider the DMCA and its ramifications on their and everyone's free speech rights.
Best regards,
Steve
P.S. Please feel free to forward this to any programmers you know in the SF bay area.
Slashdot Mirror
ICANN (Bildt, et al) has apparently laid out plans to declare that anti-democratic behavior is a good thing for a public non-profit institution that affects *all* our lives. The arrogance is astounding. The elitist board must move toward establishing direct democracy where all people of the world can participate, without their stinkin' poll tax.
on the issue of software elegance. There is a middle ground on this issue, where code beauty/maintainability/simplicity can be weighed against expediency/commerce/requirements-meeting and a healthy outcome emerges. Of course, this almost always involves a political fracas with both Crap Coders who don't give a sh*t about the quality of their work as well as the Elegance Nazi's who won't accept anything that's not absolutely perfect.
The best programmers, IMHO, are the ones who have the experience and social skills to influence both sides to "cut the crap" and get on with creating reasonably elegant and high-quality software in a reasonably fast manner.
It can even be argued that we're entering the "Age of the Non-profit" (alongside with electronic governance) on the web, with open/free software being widely adopted (kind of all-of-a-sudden, from a public perspective) and the spotlight moving away from the dot-com's. Those "Business 2.0/Fast Company" magazines have to have something to write about! :)
I can't set up a travel agency and call it American Express
Well, certainly your point is obvious. I'm speaking of the tremendous hassles that the multitudes of smaller businesses will have to go through in defending their trademarks. Not all corporations are big and wealthy-to-the-extreme.
I have yet to see anyone present a case for what these technical considerations are...
To any developer worth their salt, the technical considerations should be obvious. Not all techincal considerations are made in the vacuum of simply what a machine or a software system/design can handle. The social and economic costs as a result of any technological change is likewise considered. Deflating an economic market, f*cking trademarks and small businesspeople, and in general, creating obvious humongous brand/naming confusion in the public midsts, all in the name of some thoughtless, absolutist freedom is just unacceptable. Those are indeed technical considerations!
gTLD's are "scarce" for the sake of trademark/idea protection. Unlimited gTLD's removes all value, not just economically speaking but also makes trademark enforcement nearly impossible, thus causing too many problems for the small business trademark holder. What's the point of owning a gTLD you cannot defend from savages all over the world?
And there's even technical considerations with unlimited gTLD's that some (Auerbach) claim are virtually nonexistent, but that is all basically the equivalent of "talking out the arse."
I read your article--great work! I myself deal with the depression by making sure I take at least a couple significant breaks during the day (one of which involves walking or other form of exercise). Also, having a bottle of St. John's Wort nearby doesn't hurt! :)
I agree about the lack of social interaction being a drag (and a damper on my personality), but the rewards outweigh this, in my estimation. I still meet people when I *have* to go out. :)
A little over a year ago, I moved to Fremont, CA from North Carolina to take a regular (non-telecommuting) senior development job at a 4-yr-old software startup. After the not-unexpected layoff this past January, I almost immediately became a telecommuting developer for a software startup near Pittsburgh, PA. Imagine this: Working in California but for a Pennsylvania company. A couple years ago, this would have sounded very strange, as the reverse makes a whole lot more sense!
Since this was my first telecommuting position, there were a lot of things to adjust to. First, I had to spend a few months away from home (and my spouse) working in PA (with a harsh winter... well to me, anyway) to learn about the requirements, designs and code I was to work on. Second, I didn't exactly have a home office that was suitable or comfortable enough for doing all-day software development at home. Thus, there was quite a large investment of travel time and expenses just to get it all going.
But of course, with the recent slowdown in the jobs market, I've come to the conclusion that I need to add more short-term or part-time contracts to the mix, in case the current job goes south. If anyone is looking for an excellent Delphi developer with 12 years of overall experience who rarely faced a challenge he couldn't handle, take a look at my resume... you won't be disappointed.
Well, Mallrats beats most of the lame movies (of any genre!) released this summer. And the version you saw on cable was probably the lame-o dub-over that removed the original, critical dialogue that made this movie so damned funny. I'm not saying it's the funniest comedy ever made, but I'd still say it's a must-see in terms of 90's comedies.
Wanna make something of it?? If so, who the h*ll gives a damn?
Methinks you mean "rabid". This misspelling thing must be the result of a brain virus going around. :)
Yes, I logged the problem, but it was closed without any rationale. It's strange when such an obvious, honking bug is dismissed.
When do we get the see the YEAR shown with older or searched articles??? Hmmm???
Also note the EDD initiatives forming here and here.
people already had enough junk in their yards. A pink flamingo, lawn jockey and now a space shuttle... nice.
The gist of the problem with unlimited TLD's is dissolution and confusion, the former being the worst. Why should small business owners have their unique business names dissolved by a mountain of competing dot-whatever's when they got theirname.com first? It's already a significant cost to purchase "theirname" in .com, .net, .org and the other common TLD's. Taking the limits off TLD's dissolves the value of the existing ones to the point of "what's the point of having a web presence or even a company?". This all goes beyond trademarks... it's the value of a _brand_ that's at stake!
Hmmm... I must be a 15 yr. old at heart, as I'm playing Destructo-man with the American political system. The Internet is the new playground for those of us who see great ill with the world, and wish to positively remake it.
The subject line, stated by Henry Warwick on the Jaron Lanier .5 Manifesto site, says it all.
Following is reality... suck it up:
Steve Magruder
If you didn't know about this, then you don't know about the biggest, costliest demo failure in world history (I think). :)
Steve Magruder
Steve Magruder
See me in clips at my site (bottom of page). I'm the nerd with the bulging belly. :) [wait, "nerd" isn't a good distinguishing factor in this group]
I think we (100+ of us) were very effective in making a lot of noice about the cause to either repeal the DMCA or at least clean up the stuff related to fair use. We can't let another Dmitry be arrested with the unconstitutional provisions of this bad law.
The main downer of course is that there wasn't a lot more people (esp. programmers) there. I say it's high time for programmers to shake off their apathy and become Free Speech activists. Our country needs us.
Steve Magruder
Steve Magruder
Steve Magruder
Those are the questions I asked myself continuously while watching the new Planet of the Apes.
Steve Magruder
I sent this email to programmers I know in the SF bay area:
Hello fellow bay-area programmers/technologists,
I'm thinking of attending the Free Sklyarov protest on Monday in SF. This is an important moment in our nation's history to defend Free Speech and fair use rights. Check out the links below for more info.
Slashdot article: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/07/27/183821 2&mode=nested
Flyer that sums it all up: http://www.tabinda.com/freedmitry/free_dmitry_flye r_20010726.html
Info about the rally: http://www.mycgiserver.com/~byoungvt/meeting.html
If you have a website, join the EFF blue ribbon campaign: http://www.eff.org/br/
Note: I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone with this political e-mail, but I feel *very* strongly about this and all programmers should consider the DMCA and its ramifications on their and everyone's free speech rights.
Best regards,
Steve
P.S. Please feel free to forward this to any programmers you know in the SF bay area.
Steve Magruder