And remember, that someone else will likely be you!
Six months from now, you'll be a different person, and likely won't remember squat about what you were thinking when you wrote a particular piece of code. Comments are useful, but they're only a part of the overall goal of clarity.
Look forward to getting the usual communist propaganda from the company by mail for a while.
Having recently been 'downsized' as well, and seeing all the outsourcing, offshoring, and dissolving of jobs, I have to point out that it's CAPITALIST propaganda. They're doing it for the money. Executive/management money, and shareholder money. It lets them keep the cost down, which keeps the profit up, and more profit means more money for them!
That's the way that corporate america works. Management is #1, shareholders are #2, customers and employees are a necessary evil, and should be disposed of as soon as possible.
It's NOT an extra partition on the HD, or at least wasn't when I was working for Dell and setting up the factory install (circa 1994). I don't think the technology has changed all that much.
If I remember correctly, it's the boot files that are changed (used to be io.sys and msdos.sys) to be Dell specific, and they're changed back to the Windows versions when the electronic "seal" is broken.
Reading the description of events, I doubt that the EULAs are actually enforcable, and, well, if you're not gonna use the software anyway, I'm thinking that it really doesn't much matter.
I think the point is that the features are missing from the design (or the requirements), rather than from the implementation. Which leaves the choice to omit them, and the rationale for their omission, as what's really up for discussion.
In this case, the rationale of these choices is to guide the development of the community, from how people interact with it, to how people participate in it, to which people even both with it at all. In glancing though the article, Slashdot is mentioned several times, generally as a compare/contrast example. There's no question that Slashdot works (and works well, in my opinion), but there are definitely some characteristics that could definitely be improved. I'm sure that the Joel on Software forum works as well, but in a slightly different way.
And I'm equally sure that other forum implementations don't work for sh!t, but they manage to get lots of participation anyway (most of which is a waste of electrons that could be better spent lighting an empty closet). Then again, I don't waste my time with those, which is a fine example of design choices influencing the community.;)
When I was taking my Software Engineering course in college, my group developed a Binary File Dinker, just to get the BFD acronym. (It was a hex editor for unix files, so you could 'dink' with them.;)
Tosta Dojen wrote: This is the voice of experience. I have had to
reverse-engineer my own code 6 months after I wrote it because I failed to
document anything. Learn from my mistake
Which leads to one of my favorite development sayings:
Write maintainable code, so that a stranger working
onit six months from now will be able to figure it out. And remember, that
stranger will most likely be you!
"I may make you feel, but I can't make you think" - J. Tull
My only experience is with the Dish Network PVR, but I've been more than pleased with it. I've seen no difference in the quality of "live" video (as recorded from the dish) versus playback, probably because it plays back the same signal that it records. On those rare times I've had signal or decoding problems, those problems are as present on playback as they were on the original signal. I just wish I could all those Buffy episodes to disc instead of video tape.:-)
After all, the company does have a responsibility to operate in the best interests of all employees, not just the 20% that form the upper management.
Actually, the company has a responsibility to operate in the best interests of the shareholders, not the employees. They just have a legal responsibility to pay the employees.
Having recently been part of a startup that, well, stopped, I have thought many times that I should have held on to some equipment, then 'discovered' I had it after I finally got paid (which I figured would be some time after they started selling heaters in hell). Oh, the joys of hindsight.
One of my former co-workers who got screwed over particularly hard filed a claim with the Bureau of Labor and Industries (here in Oregon), rather than wait for the company to get additional funding to revive itself. The Oregon BOLI has a fund to cover situations like this; they'll pay employees, then go after the company for the funds. Much better, I think, than the individual employees trying to get anything. (FYI, going after a former employer in court will probably result in the few remaining assets going to cover legal fees, rather than to the employees. However, IANAL (TG!), so YMMV.)
Anyway, I had given up any hope of ever seeing those wages, and so was totally *stunned* when I got an email from the CEO last night. Seems they really are getting funding, and will finally be able to cover those back wages. I'll really believe it when I actually have a check in my hot little hands (or better still, deposited in the bank), but I've bookmarked Ripley's just in case.:-)
I went over to the Clear Channel site, and the first things I noticed were pictures of the above two 'paragons of liberty', so (self-)censorship seems par for their course. I also noticed that they own SFX Entertainment, a major concert-venue owner and promoter. The corporate beast that is Clear Channel is as big as NBC.
After my stomach settled from the nausea, I reviewed some of the Salon articles on that corporation, and CC's self-censorship just *reeks* of hypocrisy! Their leader, Randy Michaels, is a one-time shock jock, and the offensiveness of RL and Dr. Laura just goes without saying. On the bright side, most of the banned songs mentioned here probably don't get played by CC anyway (too old, too independent, or not on the payola list).
Finally, I also looked at the CC stations in my area, and wasn't all that surprised to find that none of the five stations they own in town are among those I *ever* listen to. I personally find their content to be anywhere from inane to offensive to simply lame. (Truth be told, I'd happily listen to Radio Paradise if I could get it in my car.:-)
jeffk 18 sept 2001 -> Insert obligatory disclaimers, YMMV, etc. -
"I may make you feel, but I can't make you think." - J. Tull
When I was in junior high (7th grade) in Chicago's northwest suburbia, I was in a situation similar to Sean's. In that school, dumping books was the big thing. One day, after coming back to my math class, I found my folders strewn all over the hall, and I lost it. Threw a tantrum, pushed my way through a teacher (the gym 'teacher'), left the school, and walked home. Then walked back to the school.
When I got back, they'd decided they didn't want me, so I was put into an alternative program in a different school district, and it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I enjoyed the rest of that school year, then skipped 8th grade to go into a private high school. In that school, pretty much everyone was respected, treated equally, and treated each other equally.
To this day I'm thankful that I got out of that junior high, and that I didn't have to go to the local public high school.
So I agree with Sean that he's better off not going back to that school. To Sean's dad, I suggest looking into that 'alternative' school, or private schools (but in Dallas' suburbia, that's probably not a good option), or continuing with home schooling. Or, heck, letting Sean go straight to college. He's probably ready academically, and that would be a much better social environment for him than high school.
jeffk 19 april 2001
[sigs? We don't need no steenking sigs!]
Slashdot Mirror
And remember, that someone else will likely be you!
Six months from now, you'll be a different person, and likely won't remember squat about what you were thinking when you wrote a particular piece of code. Comments are useful, but they're only a part of the overall goal of clarity.
The porn industry did do it first. See Xeni Jardain's series on boingboing.net, particularly http://www.boingboing.net/2004/09/14/_xeni_flies_z ero_g_7.html
That's the way that corporate america works. Management is #1, shareholders are #2, customers and employees are a necessary evil, and should be disposed of as soon as possible.
It's NOT an extra partition on the HD, or at least wasn't when I was working for Dell and setting up the factory install (circa 1994). I don't think the technology has changed all that much.
;)
If I remember correctly, it's the boot files that are changed (used to be io.sys and msdos.sys) to be Dell specific, and they're changed back to the Windows versions when the electronic "seal" is broken.
Reading the description of events, I doubt that the EULAs are actually enforcable, and, well, if you're not gonna use the software anyway, I'm thinking that it really doesn't much matter.
But then, IANAL(TG).
And this is something new? OF COURSE they can't be trusted!!
Well, that's not entirely true....
I think the point is that the features are missing from the design (or the requirements), rather than from the implementation. Which leaves the choice to omit them, and the rationale for their omission, as what's really up for discussion.
;)
In this case, the rationale of these choices is to guide the development of the community, from how people interact with it, to how people participate in it, to which people even both with it at all. In glancing though the article, Slashdot is mentioned several times, generally as a compare/contrast example. There's no question that Slashdot works (and works well, in my opinion), but there are definitely some characteristics that could definitely be improved. I'm sure that the Joel on Software forum works as well, but in a slightly different way.
And I'm equally sure that other forum implementations don't work for sh!t, but they manage to get lots of participation anyway (most of which is a waste of electrons that could be better spent lighting an empty closet). Then again, I don't waste my time with those, which is a fine example of design choices influencing the community.
I found a reference to this article on Wired, in which Scott Andreessen of Netscape fame attempts to give a clue to the entertainment industry.
Since someone mentioned TWAIN, I just have to complement it with that old standby, PCMCIA - People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms!
When I was taking my Software Engineering course in college, my group developed a Binary File Dinker, just to get the BFD acronym. (It was a hex editor for unix files, so you could 'dink' with them. ;)
Tosta Dojen wrote:
This is the voice of experience. I have had to reverse-engineer my own code 6 months after I wrote it because I failed to document anything. Learn from my mistake
Which leads to one of my favorite development sayings:
Write maintainable code, so that a stranger working onit six months from now will be able to figure it out. And remember, that stranger will most likely be you!
"I may make you feel, but I can't make you think" - J. Tull
My only experience is with the Dish Network PVR, but I've been more than pleased with it. I've seen no difference in the quality of "live" video (as recorded from the dish) versus playback, probably because it plays back the same signal that it records. On those rare times I've had signal or decoding problems, those problems are as present on playback as they were on the original signal. I just wish I could all those Buffy episodes to disc instead of video tape. :-)
After all, the company does have a responsibility to operate in the best interests of all employees, not just the 20% that form the upper management.
:-)
Actually, the company has a responsibility to operate in the best interests of the shareholders, not the employees. They just have a legal responsibility to pay the employees.
Having recently been part of a startup that, well, stopped, I have thought many times that I should have held on to some equipment, then 'discovered' I had it after I finally got paid (which I figured would be some time after they started selling heaters in hell). Oh, the joys of hindsight.
One of my former co-workers who got screwed over particularly hard filed a claim with the Bureau of Labor and Industries (here in Oregon), rather than wait for the company to get additional funding to revive itself. The Oregon BOLI has a fund to cover situations like this; they'll pay employees, then go after the company for the funds. Much better, I think, than the individual employees trying to get anything. (FYI, going after a former employer in court will probably result in the few remaining assets going to cover legal fees, rather than to the employees. However, IANAL (TG!), so YMMV.)
Anyway, I had given up any hope of ever seeing those wages, and so was totally *stunned* when I got an email from the CEO last night. Seems they really are getting funding, and will finally be able to cover those back wages. I'll really believe it when I actually have a check in my hot little hands (or better still, deposited in the bank), but I've bookmarked Ripley's just in case.
I went over to the Clear Channel site, and the first things I noticed were pictures of the above two 'paragons of liberty', so (self-)censorship seems par for their course. I also noticed that they own SFX Entertainment, a major concert-venue owner and promoter. The corporate beast that is Clear Channel is as big as NBC.
:-)
After my stomach settled from the nausea, I reviewed some of the Salon articles on that corporation, and CC's self-censorship just *reeks* of hypocrisy! Their leader, Randy Michaels, is a one-time shock jock, and the offensiveness of RL and Dr. Laura just goes without saying. On the bright side, most of the banned songs mentioned here probably don't get played by CC anyway (too old, too independent, or not on the payola list).
Finally, I also looked at the CC stations in my area, and wasn't all that surprised to find that none of the five stations they own in town are among those I *ever* listen to. I personally find their content to be anywhere from inane to offensive to simply lame. (Truth be told, I'd happily listen to Radio Paradise if I could get it in my car.
jeffk 18 sept 2001 -> Insert obligatory disclaimers, YMMV, etc. -
"I may make you feel, but I can't make you think." - J. Tull
When I was in junior high (7th grade) in Chicago's northwest suburbia, I was in a situation similar to Sean's. In that school, dumping books was the big thing. One day, after coming back to my math class, I found my folders strewn all over the hall, and I lost it. Threw a tantrum, pushed my way through a teacher (the gym 'teacher'), left the school, and walked home. Then walked back to the school.
When I got back, they'd decided they didn't want me, so I was put into an alternative program in a different school district, and it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I enjoyed the rest of that school year, then skipped 8th grade to go into a private high school. In that school, pretty much everyone was respected, treated equally, and treated each other equally.
To this day I'm thankful that I got out of that junior high, and that I didn't have to go to the local public high school.
So I agree with Sean that he's better off not going back to that school. To Sean's dad, I suggest looking into that 'alternative' school, or private schools (but in Dallas' suburbia, that's probably not a good option), or continuing with home schooling. Or, heck, letting Sean go straight to college. He's probably ready academically, and that would be a much better social environment for him than high school.
jeffk 19 april 2001
[sigs? We don't need no steenking sigs!]