Most of the managers I have had originally did development. Most of them were also smart enough to realize that lots of their technical knowledge was out of date. This is very important; managers don't have time to keep up serious technical skills, and should leave most technical decisions to their staff.
OTOH these managers have been working in IT for years and often know basic truths that still apply. The best managers know the difference between their out-of-date technical knowledge and the timeless truths of software development, ignore the former and use the latter.
What's the point of replacing Solaris with Linux? The only reason to do this is to facilitate the portability of Linux/x86 applications. They will all need to be recompiled for the Sparc platform. If Sun implements the important Linux libraries on Solaris then they will get this portability without having to throw away 20 years of OS research.
I find it highly likely that this is exactly what will happen. And I wouldn't be surprised to see this on the only other Unix workalike with a future as well (OS X). Although I doubt Apple will support it like Sun will.
I agree with everything you say except the last bit about Java. Sun believed in Java long before IBM got it, and Sun has been using Java internally for years now. It certainly helps that other companies see the value of this platform.
True, but we would need some way to get a construction crew and materials to Mars first. We need some cheap way to ship massive amounts of stuff off of Earth. There must be some way to cheaply escape Earth gravity...
Good point. Imagine the danger of strapping a few idiots to the top of a cylinder full of insanely flammable gasses to escape the Earth's atmosphere. This "rocket" could blow up and kill everyone aboard. Or it could crash and take out many other innocents. It could be shot down by missiles, bullets, bombs, etc. And worst of all, it might ignite the upper atmosphere and end life on Earth as we know it!
FYI the P part of AGP stands for port. Ports are for point-to-point connections; many people confuse this with a bus, which is designed for multiple devices.
Finally a voice of reason. For all those folks that didn't bother to read the standards (which seems to be most of the posters here) here is some clarification.
You cannot ABUSE alcohol or drugs, and you cannot be notoriously untruthful. It says they are going to do a background check, which means they ask people you know about your character, check the official records, etc.
If you don't have a bunch of DUIs, didn't go to the hospital for an overdose, didn't check into any drug treatment programs, and have friends that don't tell NASA all about those wild college parties then you don't have a drug or alcohol problem.
If you weren't in the papers for some atrocious crime then you probably satisfy the requirements for upstanding character.
And since the requirements are open for interpretation my guess is that large contributions of cash will guarantee that NASA doesn't check too carefully.
Right now the US does grow a lot more food than it needs. But the population of the world is growing faster than the total amount of arable land. We will have to take a second look at the effiency of food production.
FYI I am not looking forward to this since I like steak as much as anyone. Test-tube meat may be a good solution to this looming issue.
Unfortunately cows are not particularly efficient calorie-producing machines. It takes about 100 times less water and nutrients to produce edible grains than it does to feed those grains to a cow and then eat the cow.
If the cow is eating grass or other other plants that we cannot eat, and the land used is incapable of supporting crops then this waste is acceptable. But meat animals are being fed soybeans and corn.
If there was a more efficient method to feed animal cells directly then it would actually be cheaper to grow the meat in a tube.
The 8500DV would be the perfect card, but you sum up the rebuttal nicely by disparaging on ATI drivers. Apple is always going to choose components for reliability over performance. People buy Macs because they just work, not because they are necessarily the fastest machines available.
The RISC versus CISC debate is actually dead, although I don't think it happened until quite recently. IIRC Intel and AMD both decode x86 instructions for use on their essentially RISC cores. And the 68k core is finally being phased out of the Palm platform in favor of ARM (guess what the R stands for?)
And EPIC should probably be renamed EPR (Explicitly Parallel RISC), but EPR is a crummy acronym and I don't think Intel wants to admit that RISC is better.
So are you saying that if someone offered to give you a dual 1.66Ghz Athlon machine with maxed memory, SCSI HD array, a 21" flat panel screen, DVD+RW drive, Radeon 8500DV, etc...
You'd tell this person that all you want is what you can afford? Your restraint is commendable if not believable.
The debate about what frequencies are audible rages on, please don't throw wood on that fire. There are some people that want audio sampled at 96khz and 24 bits and others that are happy with RealAudio streamed over a dialup connection. Can't we all just get along?
I doubt the first suits will give enhanced strength, speed AND agility. They will probably look more like the loaders in Aliens.
A robbery generally requires stealth, or else the law will show up with overpowering force (they'll have powered suits too, you know).
So my guess is that anyone who walks into a bank wearing one of these huge suits, knocking around those rope separators for the lines, and generally looking like a bull in a china shop is going to get noticed and then caught.
Good point. It's not like Microsoft can't afford to hire some more developers:) However they can't afford to alienate Intel, because MS's worst nightmare is Dell selling (and supporting) lots of Intel boxes running Linux.
The point of buying a $200K server is definitely not for performance alone. Otherwise Alpha would rule the earth. People spend $200K for a server that is reliable, scalable, runs the software they need, and is performant.
J2EE platforms are getting more popular all the time, and they run interpreted code in a JVM. That's because modern JVMs are reliable, scalable, and run the software that people need. If more performance is needed then buy more CPUs or disk arrays or whatever. This ends up being cheaper than trying to fix buggy 3rd party software.
I guess most of the folks replying to this post have never worked with AWT. I have seen many platform issues with networked apps on AWT, across OSes and different JDKs.
If you don't live in the US, don't buy any products made by US companies, and don't pay any taxes or otherwise support your own government if it is friendly with the US then you are not supporting US interventionism. If you are buying stuff from companies like Sony and Philips you are also supporting US interventionism.
It's all very well to talk about how despicable the US government is but in reality many people across the globe depend on them for their material needs. The US government does these things to support US business, and this in turn creates the single greatest source of consumer dollars in the world. Without US consumers many companies outside of the US would lose a lot of their market.
It sure does sound selfish, but your speach sounds like pure hypocricy. Are you walking like you're talking? Otherwise drop the rock and return to the comforts of your glass house.
Hmmm... You're asking an organization that builds 1000 foot long metal boats that carry jets to be serious? You think that people who paid $500 for toilet seats are concerned about the cost of an orbital laser? Is the outfit that just toppled another sovereign government worried about international opinion?
For the US military an orbital laser system is not a question of how or why, but when.
Like all other nations the US tries to get away with as much as it can. The only reason you aren't complaining about the actions of Bulgaria or Thailand is that only one nation has the resources to thumb their nose at the rest of the world. If Monaco was the richest country in the world then you would be bitching about their heavy-handed tactics.
And why shouldn't the US continue this behavior? If a terrorist defies our hegemony then we can and will overthrow a government anywhere in the world. Any nation that is large enough to resist does enough business with the US to keep them from causing serious trouble.
If I step back and look at this situation it does seem morally deplorable, but on the other hand I have lots of stuff, high-speed internet access, and enough security to get by. Someone will need to find a better way of doing things first before the US significantly changes their foreign policy.
Good point. The same could apply to computing. Who wants to have to maintain a complex computer themselves when someone else could do it for them? A heavy duty centralized "mainframe" could do all the heavy lifting and a relatively simple "terminal" could provide services that the consumer wants.
The consumer could relax knowing that the provider will make sure that the service is always available and that all applications are secure and bug free. And the provider would be responsible for software installations and upgrades, as long as there was enough demand for them.
Slashdot Mirror
Most of the managers I have had originally did development. Most of them were also smart enough to realize that lots of their technical knowledge was out of date. This is very important; managers don't have time to keep up serious technical skills, and should leave most technical decisions to their staff.
OTOH these managers have been working in IT for years and often know basic truths that still apply. The best managers know the difference between their out-of-date technical knowledge and the timeless truths of software development, ignore the former and use the latter.
Microsoft never releases anything that by current standards is hard to install. Remember who their user base is.
What's the point of replacing Solaris with Linux? The only reason to do this is to facilitate the portability of Linux/x86 applications. They will all need to be recompiled for the Sparc platform. If Sun implements the important Linux libraries on Solaris then they will get this portability without having to throw away 20 years of OS research.
I find it highly likely that this is exactly what will happen. And I wouldn't be surprised to see this on the only other Unix workalike with a future as well (OS X). Although I doubt Apple will support it like Sun will.
I agree with everything you say except the last bit about Java. Sun believed in Java long before IBM got it, and Sun has been using Java internally for years now. It certainly helps that other companies see the value of this platform.
True, but we would need some way to get a construction crew and materials to Mars first. We need some cheap way to ship massive amounts of stuff off of Earth. There must be some way to cheaply escape Earth gravity...
Good point. Imagine the danger of strapping a few idiots to the top of a cylinder full of insanely flammable gasses to escape the Earth's atmosphere. This "rocket" could blow up and kill everyone aboard. Or it could crash and take out many other innocents. It could be shot down by missiles, bullets, bombs, etc. And worst of all, it might ignite the upper atmosphere and end life on Earth as we know it!
FYI the P part of AGP stands for port. Ports are for point-to-point connections; many people confuse this with a bus, which is designed for multiple devices.
Finally a voice of reason. For all those folks that didn't bother to read the standards (which seems to be most of the posters here) here is some clarification.
You cannot ABUSE alcohol or drugs, and you cannot be notoriously untruthful. It says they are going to do a background check, which means they ask people you know about your character, check the official records, etc.
If you don't have a bunch of DUIs, didn't go to the hospital for an overdose, didn't check into any drug treatment programs, and have friends that don't tell NASA all about those wild college parties then you don't have a drug or alcohol problem.
If you weren't in the papers for some atrocious crime then you probably satisfy the requirements for upstanding character.
And since the requirements are open for interpretation my guess is that large contributions of cash will guarantee that NASA doesn't check too carefully.
Right now the US does grow a lot more food than it needs. But the population of the world is growing faster than the total amount of arable land. We will have to take a second look at the effiency of food production.
FYI I am not looking forward to this since I like steak as much as anyone. Test-tube meat may be a good solution to this looming issue.
Unfortunately cows are not particularly efficient calorie-producing machines. It takes about 100 times less water and nutrients to produce edible grains than it does to feed those grains to a cow and then eat the cow.
If the cow is eating grass or other other plants that we cannot eat, and the land used is incapable of supporting crops then this waste is acceptable. But meat animals are being fed soybeans and corn.
If there was a more efficient method to feed animal cells directly then it would actually be cheaper to grow the meat in a tube.
The 8500DV would be the perfect card, but you sum up the rebuttal nicely by disparaging on ATI drivers. Apple is always going to choose components for reliability over performance. People buy Macs because they just work, not because they are necessarily the fastest machines available.
The RISC versus CISC debate is actually dead, although I don't think it happened until quite recently. IIRC Intel and AMD both decode x86 instructions for use on their essentially RISC cores. And the 68k core is finally being phased out of the Palm platform in favor of ARM (guess what the R stands for?)
And EPIC should probably be renamed EPR (Explicitly Parallel RISC), but EPR is a crummy acronym and I don't think Intel wants to admit that RISC is better.
So are you saying that if someone offered to give you a dual 1.66Ghz Athlon machine with maxed memory, SCSI HD array, a 21" flat panel screen, DVD+RW drive, Radeon 8500DV, etc...
You'd tell this person that all you want is what you can afford? Your restraint is commendable if not believable.
The debate about what frequencies are audible rages on, please don't throw wood on that fire. There are some people that want audio sampled at 96khz and 24 bits and others that are happy with RealAudio streamed over a dialup connection. Can't we all just get along?
Indiana Jones and the Golden Colostomy Bag
I doubt the first suits will give enhanced strength, speed AND agility. They will probably look more like the loaders in Aliens.
A robbery generally requires stealth, or else the law will show up with overpowering force (they'll have powered suits too, you know).
So my guess is that anyone who walks into a bank wearing one of these huge suits, knocking around those rope separators for the lines, and generally looking like a bull in a china shop is going to get noticed and then caught.
Good point. It's not like Microsoft can't afford to hire some more developers :) However they can't afford to alienate Intel, because MS's worst nightmare is Dell selling (and supporting) lots of Intel boxes running Linux.
The point of buying a $200K server is definitely not for performance alone. Otherwise Alpha would rule the earth. People spend $200K for a server that is reliable, scalable, runs the software they need, and is performant.
J2EE platforms are getting more popular all the time, and they run interpreted code in a JVM. That's because modern JVMs are reliable, scalable, and run the software that people need. If more performance is needed then buy more CPUs or disk arrays or whatever. This ends up being cheaper than trying to fix buggy 3rd party software.
I guess most of the folks replying to this post have never worked with AWT. I have seen many platform issues with networked apps on AWT, across OSes and different JDKs.
If you don't live in the US, don't buy any products made by US companies, and don't pay any taxes or otherwise support your own government if it is friendly with the US then you are not supporting US interventionism. If you are buying stuff from companies like Sony and Philips you are also supporting US interventionism.
It's all very well to talk about how despicable the US government is but in reality many people across the globe depend on them for their material needs. The US government does these things to support US business, and this in turn creates the single greatest source of consumer dollars in the world. Without US consumers many companies outside of the US would lose a lot of their market.
It sure does sound selfish, but your speach sounds like pure hypocricy. Are you walking like you're talking? Otherwise drop the rock and return to the comforts of your glass house.
Hmmm... You're asking an organization that builds 1000 foot long metal boats that carry jets to be serious? You think that people who paid $500 for toilet seats are concerned about the cost of an orbital laser? Is the outfit that just toppled another sovereign government worried about international opinion?
For the US military an orbital laser system is not a question of how or why, but when.
Whoops you forgot a couple of words: radioactive waste. Maybe we can put it in your back yard?
Like all other nations the US tries to get away with as much as it can. The only reason you aren't complaining about the actions of Bulgaria or Thailand is that only one nation has the resources to thumb their nose at the rest of the world. If Monaco was the richest country in the world then you would be bitching about their heavy-handed tactics.
And why shouldn't the US continue this behavior? If a terrorist defies our hegemony then we can and will overthrow a government anywhere in the world. Any nation that is large enough to resist does enough business with the US to keep them from causing serious trouble.
If I step back and look at this situation it does seem morally deplorable, but on the other hand I have lots of stuff, high-speed internet access, and enough security to get by. Someone will need to find a better way of doing things first before the US significantly changes their foreign policy.
Imagine what Windows would be like if M$ spent as much money on QA as they did on marketing!
Good point. The same could apply to computing. Who wants to have to maintain a complex computer themselves when someone else could do it for them? A heavy duty centralized "mainframe" could do all the heavy lifting and a relatively simple "terminal" could provide services that the consumer wants.
The consumer could relax knowing that the provider will make sure that the service is always available and that all applications are secure and bug free. And the provider would be responsible for software installations and upgrades, as long as there was enough demand for them.