Be sure to check out A Land Far Away if you are a hard core role player (in the "acting" sense and not in the "hack and slash" sense). It's a fairly massive online community of about 700 people whose characters will all live within an international cluster of servers.
I got my character in a couple of months ago when I read someone else's post about ALFA here on/. It looks like it ought to be a good time.
Current PDAs may be down to pocket size but at the cost of screen real estate. What is really required are several technical advances:
Cheaply manufacturable flexible screens
More efficient batteries that can be manufactured in significantly smaller sizes
(Optional) Voice recoginition (mentioned in several places elsewhere)
The first two points are the most important. If the battery can be made small enough and the screen flexible, then, conceivably, one could almost construct a device with the functionality of existing PDA/cell phone devices in the form factor of a wristwatch! If the above changes could then be produced cheaply enough--say within the $200 range, then the MIT's so-called "pervasive computing" suddenly becomes a far more realistic proposition.
That's right out of Snow Crash! The Fed (US Government) workforce functioned in exactly the same way. Early arrivals would sit close to the door of the office and latecomers would be forced to sit further away making them the obvious object of spurn and ridicule.
Frightening stuff.
CORBA is too heavy & EJB is too RMI/IIOP depen
on
Web Services
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Before I begin, I want to make clear that I'm an XML skeptic. To me, XML is nothing more than formatted text -- utterly devoid of value until two or more parties agree on a shared vocabulary (in the form of a DTD or Schema).
To be simple, CORBA is too entirely too complex. Until recently, even Orbix's (the lead vendor of the pack) offerings have been extremely "flexible" with their degree of compliance to the CORBA spec; Orbix 2.x had CORBA 1.x and 2.x features side by side without any clear delineation of which feature was compliant with which spec.
EJB is respectable if you're a CORBA or RMI shop.
Now, let's be realistic. HTTP is already there. It works. Sure, it's not stateful but, historically, people have been kluging statefulness in using cookies for years. XML isn't necessarily ideal but, if you want to be programming language indepent then you have to choose some sort of format. Why not formatted plain text? Sure, it's a little wasteful on the bandwidth but it's flexable.
To the above mix, we just add UDDI in place of a JNDI or CosNaming and away you go.
Sounds nice in principle but I have yet to see it in practice.;)
Granted that I'm unfamiliar with Graves or Frazer (must look these guys up now:-D), I definitely have to conceed that the first three movies are far truer to core mythology and, hence, perhaps, their massive appeal and generally accepted beauty.
Indeed, the Phantom Menace did have that feel of being trapped within the mythology of the Eps IV through VI rather than continuing to freely explore mythology holistically.
That holistic notion seemed key to Campbell's work. So he inherited that perspective? Interesting.
Again, very insightful remark IMHO. Give kubla2000 his 5!;-)
See, George Lucas' inspiration for Star Wars came largely from a man by the name of Joseph Campbell. If you're unfamiliar with him, he was a renowned mythologist (really a mish-mash of cultural anthropologist and psychologist with a focus on cultural dialectics).
Mythology is rarely original. In fact, Campbell, were he alive, would likely point out that there are only a handful of basic mythological stories and most every contemporary myth has some root in a far more generic myth.
So, my point: indeed, there isn't anything original about Star Wars. It's just another way of characterizing a myth, in this case, the fall from grace, that has been around for thousands of years.
If 23% are buying less because they are downloading more for free, that just means that the other 77% of "music consumers" could be a) buying more because they download more, b) buying more for reasons having nothing to do with downloading music off of the net, or c) buying less for reasons that have nothing to do with downloading music off of the net.
Shall we explore option "C"?
Here in the U.S. we're currently in a recession. Be it enough to say that when people fear for their financial stability, they tend to buy luxuries, like music, less frequently.
Perhaps sales have dropped simply because people aren't willing to spend money on music and, instead, are just holding onto their cash?
Evil question, I know, but can anyone other than a Mac user make use of this puppy? Are we non-Mac guys going to have to wait for people to write Linux/Windows/Whatever software for it before using it on our non-Mac machines???
The trouble is that, typically, as programmer skill/experience increases, there tends to be a desire for more order in their products. We (I'm one too) want to make our jobs easier now, and in the future, by maintaining a certain level of aesthetic in terms of the quality of the design and the code. The catch is that it almost always takes longer to get a product to market when we, software engineers/coders/developers, spend as much time on design and development as we see fit.
Managers (in the civillian sector, anyway), on the other hand, are typically interested in time to market first and quality second. This is naturally at odds with most seasoned programmer's perspectives.
However, I've always felt that the management perspective seems short-sighted. It's been my experience that almost every product that I've had to rush to market required maintenance/extension later. Said maintenance and extensions were made infinitely more painful by the lack of adequate time for design and development.
Any managers care to comment? I'd like to hear more of the other side.
This post is insightful! Not a troll! Someone meta-moderate these people, please! Just because this post disagrees with the typical/. mentality of free beer for everyone doesn't make it a troll! This person has a damn good point!
Fictional literature addresses both the positive and negative influnces of technology. The reason that people write works such as those you mentioned is specifically because just as technology can make your life better, it can also make your life worse. Let's take the discovery of nuclear fission for example. First, it was used to kill hoards of Japanese during World War II and now it used as an alternate energy source around the world.
It's naive to forget that technology is a double-edged sword.
First, let me say that this is *not* an advertising.
Have you ever heard of a little company called TogetherSoft? Their product, Together, lets you keep your design and code 100% in sync constantly! As you develop your model, the tool is actually writing code. When you write code that effects the design, the model is updated. That simple.
So, to say the least, I have to disagree with you 100%. Process instilled modeling CAN work -- it just needs to be easier than tools like Ration Rose make it out to be.
However, as a UVa Alum who has his fair share of bitterness as well (and most certainly DOESN'T call the school "The University", "Mr. Jefferson's School", or any of that bunk, I will defend the honor system. Sure, every university has one but is it so ridiculous not to expect honorable behavior on the part of students much less your average citizen?
Fine, PHYS 106 is a gut. Does that in any way lend any more credence to cheating in it? I think not.
Tell me, what's wrong with requiring honorable behavior? What's wrong with sanctioning those people who don't live their lives ethically?
First, I'd like to point out that the article does not clearly indicate that the students accused of cheating are necessarily currently taking the class. That is to say that I don't believe that 122 of 500 students in a particular class cheated but that 122 of 1500 cheated. Still, 1 in 15 is pretty pathetic.
Now, I attended UVa (granted it was several years ago now) and have been on an honor jury so I can speak a little to the system.
I can't recall for certain if UVa even HAS a statute of limitations on honor violation accusations. In other words, it doesn't matter if you are currently in a class, have recently taken a class, or already graduated. I believe that students have even had their degrees revoked after graduation due to past honor violations. In addition, if memory serves, the UVa honor system still technically applies to an alum beyond the scope of the University as well.
Also, from my experience, honor jury members are as cautious as the Post article suggests. After all, someone's entire college career is at risk.
Cell phones are not the answer here. Who likes surfing the net on a pathetic little cell phone screen with three to five lines of text?
PDAs, particularly WinCE machines, already operate with 32 to 64MB of memory. They're just awfully expensive -- which is exactly what we're seeing as the trend for upcoming Phone/PDA devices (re: Hitachi's PalmOS PDA/Phone).
However, I have to concur, the trick will be battery life. Not only are you driving a cell phone but now a larger LCD screen and, quite possibly, color and backlit.
Now if only Valve would port Half-Life or Dynamix would produce a Tribes 2 dedicated server port! What a lovely dedicated server these $300 boxes would be!
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm "lazy" in that I code simple so that I don't have to remember a lot. I also get my work done long before my slacker colleagues. I think I'm doing my job right, thanks. Besides, I definitely have impatience and hubris down pat.
I admit, I see XP as a very effective means to publish many friendly books which geeks will buy voraciously resulting in big gains for the authors.
Considering your comments, XP really does seem to lend itself more to the mediocre/average coder. Certainly not the clueless bad-apple on your project who is only efficient at converting oxygen into carbon dioxide and also certainly not for the more experienced engineers who know how to get the job done and know when they need to communicate with other engineers to expedite the process.
I, too, have wondered about that idyllic world mentioned in XP where the customer is always available to provide information. Hell, most of the projects that I've been involved in, whether product or service, commercial or government, people are ALWAYS trying to isolate the coders from the customers.
My current project is the very first that I've experienced, out of maybe 9 or 10, where I've been afforded a direct relationship with the customer and I love it. But, as you said, this is nigh impossible to find so I'm trying to enjoy every moment.
Having tried XP and given up on it, my major point of contention was pair programming. Both my colleague and I are fairly experienced and relatively agressive in the pursuit of our work. As such, whoever was riding "shotgun" became extremely bored while the fellow "driving" became frustrated that the guy riding shotgun would come up with ideas in the middle of the driver's typing.
I agree that I find it infinitely more valuable to simply have someone available that I can constantly use for a sounding board. So long as I have that resource available and I can use it freely, I see paired programming as fairly wasteful of my time. Then again, I'm prone to minimal laziness in my work unlike one of the slackers interviewed in the CNET article.
Incidentally, unless Visors have changed that much since their initial release, the microphone is only connected directly to the springboard slot and is inaccessable from the rest of the hardware within the device. In other words, the microphone is only useful in conjunction with a springboard.
Originally, my subject was going to read "Great! Now go lambast the reporter directly!" Then I combed the story, and the reference to the story on Yahoo, and realized that the author is indeed a truely brave man -- because he thinks that this audience will believe his story when he fails to sign his name on it!
Where's the journalistic integrity in releasing a story and not being accountable for its accuracy?!
Slashdot Mirror
Be sure to check out A Land Far Away if you are a hard core role player (in the "acting" sense and not in the "hack and slash" sense). It's a fairly massive online community of about 700 people whose characters will all live within an international cluster of servers.
/. It looks like it ought to be a good time.
I got my character in a couple of months ago when I read someone else's post about ALFA here on
Cheaply manufacturable flexible screens
More efficient batteries that can be manufactured in significantly smaller sizes
(Optional) Voice recoginition (mentioned in several places elsewhere)
The first two points are the most important. If the battery can be made small enough and the screen flexible, then, conceivably, one could almost construct a device with the functionality of existing PDA/cell phone devices in the form factor of a wristwatch! If the above changes could then be produced cheaply enough--say within the $200 range, then the MIT's so-called "pervasive computing" suddenly becomes a far more realistic proposition.
That's right out of Snow Crash! The Fed (US Government) workforce functioned in exactly the same way. Early arrivals would sit close to the door of the office and latecomers would be forced to sit further away making them the obvious object of spurn and ridicule.
Frightening stuff.
Before I begin, I want to make clear that I'm an XML skeptic. To me, XML is nothing more than formatted text -- utterly devoid of value until two or more parties agree on a shared vocabulary (in the form of a DTD or Schema).
;)
To be simple, CORBA is too entirely too complex. Until recently, even Orbix's (the lead vendor of the pack) offerings have been extremely "flexible" with their degree of compliance to the CORBA spec; Orbix 2.x had CORBA 1.x and 2.x features side by side without any clear delineation of which feature was compliant with which spec.
EJB is respectable if you're a CORBA or RMI shop.
Now, let's be realistic. HTTP is already there. It works. Sure, it's not stateful but, historically, people have been kluging statefulness in using cookies for years. XML isn't necessarily ideal but, if you want to be programming language indepent then you have to choose some sort of format. Why not formatted plain text? Sure, it's a little wasteful on the bandwidth but it's flexable.
To the above mix, we just add UDDI in place of a JNDI or CosNaming and away you go.
Sounds nice in principle but I have yet to see it in practice.
Granted that I'm unfamiliar with Graves or Frazer (must look these guys up now :-D), I definitely have to conceed that the first three movies are far truer to core mythology and, hence, perhaps, their massive appeal and generally accepted beauty.
;-)
Indeed, the Phantom Menace did have that feel of being trapped within the mythology of the Eps IV through VI rather than continuing to freely explore mythology holistically.
That holistic notion seemed key to Campbell's work. So he inherited that perspective? Interesting.
Again, very insightful remark IMHO. Give kubla2000 his 5!
See, George Lucas' inspiration for Star Wars came largely from a man by the name of Joseph Campbell. If you're unfamiliar with him, he was a renowned mythologist (really a mish-mash of cultural anthropologist and psychologist with a focus on cultural dialectics).
Mythology is rarely original. In fact, Campbell, were he alive, would likely point out that there are only a handful of basic mythological stories and most every contemporary myth has some root in a far more generic myth.
So, my point: indeed, there isn't anything original about Star Wars. It's just another way of characterizing a myth, in this case, the fall from grace, that has been around for thousands of years.
If 23% are buying less because they are downloading more for free, that just means that the other 77% of "music consumers" could be a) buying more because they download more, b) buying more for reasons having nothing to do with downloading music off of the net, or c) buying less for reasons that have nothing to do with downloading music off of the net.
Shall we explore option "C"?
Here in the U.S. we're currently in a recession. Be it enough to say that when people fear for their financial stability, they tend to buy luxuries, like music, less frequently.
Perhaps sales have dropped simply because people aren't willing to spend money on music and, instead, are just holding onto their cash?
Evil question, I know, but can anyone other than a Mac user make use of this puppy? Are we non-Mac guys going to have to wait for people to write Linux/Windows/Whatever software for it before using it on our non-Mac machines???
The trouble is that, typically, as programmer skill/experience increases, there tends to be a desire for more order in their products. We (I'm one too) want to make our jobs easier now, and in the future, by maintaining a certain level of aesthetic in terms of the quality of the design and the code. The catch is that it almost always takes longer to get a product to market when we, software engineers/coders/developers, spend as much time on design and development as we see fit.
Managers (in the civillian sector, anyway), on the other hand, are typically interested in time to market first and quality second. This is naturally at odds with most seasoned programmer's perspectives.
However, I've always felt that the management perspective seems short-sighted. It's been my experience that almost every product that I've had to rush to market required maintenance/extension later. Said maintenance and extensions were made infinitely more painful by the lack of adequate time for design and development.
Any managers care to comment? I'd like to hear more of the other side.
This post is insightful! Not a troll! Someone meta-moderate these people, please! Just because this post disagrees with the typical /. mentality of free beer for everyone doesn't make it a troll! This person has a damn good point!
Fictional literature addresses both the positive and negative influnces of technology. The reason that people write works such as those you mentioned is specifically because just as technology can make your life better, it can also make your life worse. Let's take the discovery of nuclear fission for example. First, it was used to kill hoards of Japanese during World War II and now it used as an alternate energy source around the world.
It's naive to forget that technology is a double-edged sword.
First, let me say that this is *not* an advertising.
Have you ever heard of a little company called TogetherSoft? Their product, Together, lets you keep your design and code 100% in sync constantly! As you develop your model, the tool is actually writing code. When you write code that effects the design, the model is updated. That simple.
So, to say the least, I have to disagree with you 100%. Process instilled modeling CAN work -- it just needs to be easier than tools like Ration Rose make it out to be.
However, as a UVa Alum who has his fair share of bitterness as well (and most certainly DOESN'T call the school "The University", "Mr. Jefferson's School", or any of that bunk, I will defend the honor system. Sure, every university has one but is it so ridiculous not to expect honorable behavior on the part of students much less your average citizen?
Fine, PHYS 106 is a gut. Does that in any way lend any more credence to cheating in it? I think not.
Tell me, what's wrong with requiring honorable behavior? What's wrong with sanctioning those people who don't live their lives ethically?
First, I'd like to point out that the article does not clearly indicate that the students accused of cheating are necessarily currently taking the class. That is to say that I don't believe that 122 of 500 students in a particular class cheated but that 122 of 1500 cheated. Still, 1 in 15 is pretty pathetic.
Now, I attended UVa (granted it was several years ago now) and have been on an honor jury so I can speak a little to the system.
I can't recall for certain if UVa even HAS a statute of limitations on honor violation accusations. In other words, it doesn't matter if you are currently in a class, have recently taken a class, or already graduated. I believe that students have even had their degrees revoked after graduation due to past honor violations. In addition, if memory serves, the UVa honor system still technically applies to an alum beyond the scope of the University as well.
Also, from my experience, honor jury members are as cautious as the Post article suggests. After all, someone's entire college career is at risk.
'nuff said
Cell phones are not the answer here. Who likes surfing the net on a pathetic little cell phone screen with three to five lines of text?
PDAs, particularly WinCE machines, already operate with 32 to 64MB of memory. They're just awfully expensive -- which is exactly what we're seeing as the trend for upcoming Phone/PDA devices (re: Hitachi's PalmOS PDA/Phone).
However, I have to concur, the trick will be battery life. Not only are you driving a cell phone but now a larger LCD screen and, quite possibly, color and backlit.
Now if only Valve would port Half-Life or Dynamix would produce a Tribes 2 dedicated server port! What a lovely dedicated server these $300 boxes would be!
... Agenda is fighting against a large installed base. U.S. Robotics had no such competitor when it first released the Palm Pilot 1000 back in '96.
Doh! My bad on the unitilicized portion. Must be the utter lack of brain exercise that is my job today (rare occasion). Sorry.
CmdrTaco, Rob, *POSTED* this article but he didn't write it.
Pay attention.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm "lazy" in that I code simple so that I don't have to remember a lot. I also get my work done long before my slacker colleagues. I think I'm doing my job right, thanks. Besides, I definitely have impatience and hubris down pat.
I admit, I see XP as a very effective means to publish many friendly books which geeks will buy voraciously resulting in big gains for the authors.
Considering your comments, XP really does seem to lend itself more to the mediocre/average coder. Certainly not the clueless bad-apple on your project who is only efficient at converting oxygen into carbon dioxide and also certainly not for the more experienced engineers who know how to get the job done and know when they need to communicate with other engineers to expedite the process.
I, too, have wondered about that idyllic world mentioned in XP where the customer is always available to provide information. Hell, most of the projects that I've been involved in, whether product or service, commercial or government, people are ALWAYS trying to isolate the coders from the customers.
My current project is the very first that I've experienced, out of maybe 9 or 10, where I've been afforded a direct relationship with the customer and I love it. But, as you said, this is nigh impossible to find so I'm trying to enjoy every moment.
Having tried XP and given up on it, my major point of contention was pair programming. Both my colleague and I are fairly experienced and relatively agressive in the pursuit of our work. As such, whoever was riding "shotgun" became extremely bored while the fellow "driving" became frustrated that the guy riding shotgun would come up with ideas in the middle of the driver's typing.
I agree that I find it infinitely more valuable to simply have someone available that I can constantly use for a sounding board. So long as I have that resource available and I can use it freely, I see paired programming as fairly wasteful of my time. Then again, I'm prone to minimal laziness in my work unlike one of the slackers interviewed in the CNET article.
Incidentally, unless Visors have changed that much since their initial release, the microphone is only connected directly to the springboard slot and is inaccessable from the rest of the hardware within the device. In other words, the microphone is only useful in conjunction with a springboard.
Originally, my subject was going to read "Great! Now go lambast the reporter directly!" Then I combed the story, and the reference to the story on Yahoo, and realized that the author is indeed a truely brave man -- because he thinks that this audience will believe his story when he fails to sign his name on it!
Where's the journalistic integrity in releasing a story and not being accountable for its accuracy?!