I was gobsmacked at this paragraph from the article:
"There was also a lot of discussion about the way that nanotechnology might affect property rights. If you can make pretty much anything at home, using nanodevices, then information becomes the key input. But how would the auto industry feel about a Napster for Ferraris? "
Hey dude, wake up! If we can make just about anything we need at home from dust, who needs money? If someone steals your Ferrari, make a new one from the dirt in your backyard!
Property...indeed.
Proof that astrology is bull
on
RMS Turns 50
·
· Score: 1
I turned 38 on the 16th, but unlike RMS I am neither a hippy or particularly principled.
Over the years I had used many debuggers and always found I spent huge amounts of time on the process for very little reward.
Then I started using an inline trace system in my code. Simply put, I can output any text I like, a la printf anywhere in my program. All subroutine entry and exit points are covered by trace statements and critical branches and variables are traced. Each trace statement has a level associated with it so that the trace can show just high level execution detail or low-level detail on request.
All trace statements are output to a file if trace is turned on. The size of the file can be controlled, new files created every x megabytes, or they can even be made to wrap once a certain size is reached.
In the end, the trace statements are almost like 'live comments' that clearly show what the code is doing and why. If trace is not enabled, the overhead of the trace system is negligible. If that's a problem then a compile-time switch removes trace completely. I can even turn trace on or off and change it's level on a running process.
Since using this system I've never needed a debugger. When something goes wrong it is so simple to get the trace file and source code and follow what happened. For catching those bugs that happen once in a million executions, it is completely indispensible.
Sure, you need some discipline to write good trace in the code, but then again you need that discipline to write good code anyway.
Anyone else used a similar kind of system? My experience here is C code on UNIX systems. It might be harder to implement this in other languages or operating systems.
"That price sounds about right to Rob Vollmer, 32, a principal in Crosby-Vollmer International Communications, a Washington-based public-relations firm.
Vollmer, who has flown 140,000 miles this year, does so much work by e-mail that he sometimes feels compelled to surreptitiously check messages during flights with a wireless Palm device, though it's prohibited."
I believe the correct word here is illegal!!!
The clock has now started ticking Mr. Vollmer, expect the Feds to be banging on your door very soon!
From the article "...because some of the best people in the industry don't have degrees".
I come from exactly that background. I got my first computer (ZX80) at 13 and built it from a kit. Got some good experience in a whole range of tech jobs when I left school at 17, contracted for a time, and ended up with an excellent tech consultant type job.
I've hired quite a lot of people over the years and I've met stupid and smart graduates and stupid and smart 'self-taught' types.
The thing I found about the non-degree people was that the good ones really burned for programming - they really loved the kick that came from breaking a 'simple' sentence down into thousands of lines of code and making it work!
Some of the best degree guys urgently needed to pay off debts and you knew you were only going to be used as a stepping stone to the next job.
The only other difference was the bad habits that the academics had already got into and the willingness of the 'self-taught' types to learn from their peers.
Hopefully, computer education is now better than when I went to school (I am now 37). At school in the UK, I was just one year in front of the first year to get computer classes. I taught myself assembler when I was 13, and learned how computers work internally. When I saw a basic exam (O level) paper at 16, I could have re-written the paper so that the questions were no longer ambiguous! It was a terrible exam paper! I freely admit that I am far from the best designer or programmer in the world, but learning most of my trade on the front lines of computing has given me a much better instinct for what might work than many people much more qualified than me.
So, I guess I have to own up and say that I think that 'self-taught' guys are better than graduates because they have the burning passion for computers, technology and programming - and they want to do something tangible with it now!
I use a whole variety of operating systems both at home and at work. In each case, the one that I need for the job.
On the work side, my machine is an IBM thinkpad. It runs Linux, OS/2 and Windows ME. The Linux environment is my main workplace and provides secure, virus-free e-mail via Ximian Evolution. I also deal with MS-Office documents using CrossOver to run MS-Office (OpenOffice is nearly good enough but still can't read/write MS formats exactly). I also develop software on Linux and a variety of UNIX platforms from my Linux installation. Windows is there for playing games. WineX is getting better, but needs to support more graphics cards. It is not enough to just support Nvidia cards. OS/2 is there for developing applications for the high-speed document transports that the company I work for makes. It still surprises me how good OS/2 Warp 4 is.
At home, the firewall is Linux based (Smoothwall GPL), for reasons of cost and security. My children's machines run Windows ME. Have you tried to run children's games on anything else? Forget it!
Finally, the latest machine at home (big 2.2GHz Dell with 20" flat panel) runs XP for various games and MS-Office, and Linux when I'm using it.
If I could run all Windows games on Linux, or if there were always Linux ports available, then I'd most likely be able to ditch Windows. As for MS-Office, the file formats ensure that I'll be a slave to that for as long as Microsoft keep the stranglehold on the market.
I'd just like to thank Larry Rosen for writing some of the clearest english I have read in many years. Larry's explanation of the points raised by/. readers is an inspiring example of how to use clear, simple english to explain even the most complex issues.
Most companies use MS-Office. I need to work with my colleagues on various documents - specifications, pricing models etc. If OpenOffice cannot work completely accurately with MS file formats then I am forced to use MS-Office. I don't want the functionality to be cloned, I want OpenOffice to be able to render the document/spreadsheet in exactly the same way as MS-Office. One of the settlement terms in MS's anti-trust case should be that they are forced to open the file formats so that other applications can compete on a level playing field.
This is not the case today and as I said: This is the one biggest hurdle to Linux winning more desktop share. Interoperability is the key.
The fact that you can't exchange documents between MS Office and Open Office is really what the whole Linux on the Desktop thing is about. Until OpenOffice can exchange files completely with MS Office, Windows will remain the dominant desktop and MS Office the dominant office suite.
It's not good enough to say that Open Office/Star Office does a 'reasonably' good job on MS files. If it isn't perfect its not worth anything.
Sweden is OK and its a hell of a lot warmer and cheaper than Iceland. You even have a good chance of getting a job here if you are an IT nerd.
Except... If you are not an EU citizen you can most likely fuck off....although Sweden seemed to be good at giving homes to US folks who wanted to skip the Vietnam draft.
(I'm a British ex-pat, so your chances might be different.)
This must be the call for all music artists to wake up and abandon the music industry vultures.
If the RIAA has its way, and the court rules in its favour, it could result in all Internet access from the US to China being cut off. Is this how you want US law making to influence democracy in China? Is this how you want your record label to spend the vast majority of your income?
Just as I am about to go on holiday without a single computer in sight, Mandrake release a new beta.
How can they do this to me?!!!
Re:File formats are the core problem
on
Digital Dark Ages?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Putting stuff on a CD-ROM will *not* preserve it for eternity. Burnable CD-ROMS might last 50 years if you keep then in a dark, temperature controlled vault. Pressed CDs will last rather longer but eternity is not an option with this kind of storage.
Shame on David Emberton for not instructing his mum in the fine art and absolute neccesity of making backups!
"Yesterday, my mother's computer died -- taking two years worth of email with it."
However, he does raise an interesting point. There have been even more spectacular failures than the Norwegian museum that he refers to; witness the BBC in the UK's loss of much of their digital archive due to not having any drives available to read the optical media any more.
I can see that in 100 years all content that has not been re-archived onto modern media will cease to exist. What the long-term solution to this is, I have no idea! Stone tablets would still seem to be the best way of recording something for millenia.
Slashdot Mirror
Remember rule number one:
If you criticise someone's grammar, spelling and writing you must ensure that yours is perfect.
'blatent' indeed!
I wonder what you get for slashdotting af.mil!
Incoming....
Anyone who thinks that the link proposed is a summary has waaay too much time on their hands!
I never have to give my person number when booking flights and I fly over 40 flights in and out of Sweden per year.
I therefore have to question the validity of your information.
I was gobsmacked at this paragraph from the article:
"There was also a lot of discussion about the way that nanotechnology might affect property rights. If you can make pretty much anything at home, using nanodevices, then information becomes the key input. But how would the auto industry feel about a Napster for Ferraris? "
Hey dude, wake up! If we can make just about anything we need at home from dust, who needs money? If someone steals your Ferrari, make a new one from the dirt in your backyard!
Property...indeed.
I turned 38 on the 16th, but unlike RMS I am neither a hippy or particularly principled.
A very happy birthday to you Mr. Stallman!
Over the years I had used many debuggers and always found I spent huge amounts of time on the process for very little reward.
Then I started using an inline trace system in my code. Simply put, I can output any text I like, a la printf anywhere in my program. All subroutine entry and exit points are covered by trace statements and critical branches and variables are traced. Each trace statement has a level associated with it so that the trace can show just high level execution detail or low-level detail on request.
All trace statements are output to a file if trace is turned on. The size of the file can be controlled, new files created every x megabytes, or they can even be made to wrap once a certain size is reached.
In the end, the trace statements are almost like 'live comments' that clearly show what the code is doing and why. If trace is not enabled, the overhead of the trace system is negligible. If that's a problem then a compile-time switch removes trace completely. I can even turn trace on or off and change it's level on a running process.
Since using this system I've never needed a debugger. When something goes wrong it is so simple to get the trace file and source code and follow what happened. For catching those bugs that happen once in a million executions, it is completely indispensible.
Sure, you need some discipline to write good trace in the code, but then again you need that discipline to write good code anyway.
Anyone else used a similar kind of system? My experience here is C code on UNIX systems. It might be harder to implement this in other languages or operating systems.
Is it really so hard?
The plural of mouse is mice!!!
"That price sounds about right to Rob Vollmer, 32, a principal in Crosby-Vollmer International Communications, a Washington-based public-relations firm.
Vollmer, who has flown 140,000 miles this year, does so much work by e-mail that he sometimes feels compelled to surreptitiously check messages during flights with a wireless Palm device, though it's prohibited."
I believe the correct word here is illegal!!!
The clock has now started ticking Mr. Vollmer, expect the Feds to be banging on your door very soon!
From the article "...because some of the best people in the industry don't have degrees".
...Dons asbestos suit and retires...
I come from exactly that background. I got my first computer (ZX80) at 13 and built it from a kit. Got some good experience in a whole range of tech jobs when I left school at 17, contracted for a time, and ended up with an excellent tech consultant type job.
I've hired quite a lot of people over the years and I've met stupid and smart graduates and stupid and smart 'self-taught' types.
The thing I found about the non-degree people was that the good ones really burned for programming - they really loved the kick that came from breaking a 'simple' sentence down into thousands of lines of code and making it work!
Some of the best degree guys urgently needed to pay off debts and you knew you were only going to be used as a stepping stone to the next job.
The only other difference was the bad habits that the academics had already got into and the willingness of the 'self-taught' types to learn from their peers.
Hopefully, computer education is now better than when I went to school (I am now 37). At school in the UK, I was just one year in front of the first year to get computer classes. I taught myself assembler when I was 13, and learned how computers work internally. When I saw a basic exam (O level) paper at 16, I could have re-written the paper so that the questions were no longer ambiguous! It was a terrible exam paper! I freely admit that I am far from the best designer or programmer in the world, but learning most of my trade on the front lines of computing has given me a much better instinct for what might work than many people much more qualified than me.
So, I guess I have to own up and say that I think that 'self-taught' guys are better than graduates because they have the burning passion for computers, technology and programming - and they want to do something tangible with it now!
Personally, I configure my software to get it working, but each to his own I guess!
Yeah right, and how much time is it going to take me to send the 5GB of data I need to backup over my pathetic 128Kb/s cable modem upstream channel?
Remote backup is fine if you have huge amounts of bandwidth. For the rest of us, forget it!
I use a whole variety of operating systems both at home and at work. In each case, the one that I need for the job.
On the work side, my machine is an IBM thinkpad. It runs Linux, OS/2 and Windows ME. The Linux environment is my main workplace and provides secure, virus-free e-mail via Ximian Evolution. I also deal with MS-Office documents using CrossOver to run MS-Office (OpenOffice is nearly good enough but still can't read/write MS formats exactly). I also develop software on Linux and a variety of UNIX platforms from my Linux installation.
Windows is there for playing games. WineX is getting better, but needs to support more graphics cards. It is not enough to just support Nvidia cards.
OS/2 is there for developing applications for the high-speed document transports that the company I work for makes. It still surprises me how good OS/2 Warp 4 is.
At home, the firewall is Linux based (Smoothwall GPL), for reasons of cost and security. My children's machines run Windows ME. Have you tried to run children's games on anything else? Forget it!
Finally, the latest machine at home (big 2.2GHz Dell with 20" flat panel) runs XP for various games and MS-Office, and Linux when I'm using it.
If I could run all Windows games on Linux, or if there were always Linux ports available, then I'd most likely be able to ditch Windows. As for MS-Office, the file formats ensure that I'll be a slave to that for as long as Microsoft keep the stranglehold on the market.
I'd just like to thank Larry Rosen for writing some of the clearest english I have read in many years. Larry's explanation of the points raised by /. readers is an inspiring example of how to use clear, simple english to explain even the most complex issues.
I think you are missing the point.
Most companies use MS-Office. I need to work with my colleagues on various documents - specifications, pricing models etc. If OpenOffice cannot work completely accurately with MS file formats then I am forced to use MS-Office. I don't want the functionality to be cloned, I want OpenOffice to be able to render the document/spreadsheet in exactly the same way as MS-Office. One of the settlement terms in MS's anti-trust case should be that they are forced to open the file formats so that other applications can compete on a level playing field.
This is not the case today and as I said: This is the one biggest hurdle to Linux winning more desktop share. Interoperability is the key.
The fact that you can't exchange documents between MS Office and Open Office is really what the whole Linux on the Desktop thing is about. Until OpenOffice can exchange files completely with MS Office, Windows will remain the dominant desktop and MS Office the dominant office suite.
It's not good enough to say that Open Office/Star Office does a 'reasonably' good job on MS files. If it isn't perfect its not worth anything.
Ooops! Looks like you don't have to hide it
now, having just announced to several million
slashdot readers that you surf for pr0n!!
Sweden is OK and its a hell of a lot
warmer and cheaper than Iceland. You
even have a good chance of getting a
job here if you are an IT nerd.
Except... If you are not an EU citizen
you can most likely fuck off....although
Sweden seemed to be good at giving homes
to US folks who wanted to skip the Vietnam
draft.
(I'm a British ex-pat, so your chances
might be different.)
This must be the call for all music artists to wake up and abandon
the music industry vultures.
If the RIAA has its way, and the court rules in its favour, it could result in all
Internet access from the US to China being cut off.
Is this how you want US law making to influence democracy
in China? Is this how you want your record label to spend
the vast majority of your income?
Ever seen a joke before?
Could this story have anything to do with this one:
Schmidt Predicts Digital Sky Is Falling ??
Shome mishtake shurely?
*Sigh of relief* Thanks! I'd forgotten about the
/. effect for a moment there!
I feel much better now.
Just as I am about to go on holiday without a single computer in sight, Mandrake release a new beta.
How can they do this to me?!!!
Putting stuff on a CD-ROM will *not* preserve it
for eternity. Burnable CD-ROMS might last 50 years
if you keep then in a dark, temperature controlled
vault. Pressed CDs will last rather longer but
eternity is not an option with this kind of storage.
Shame on David Emberton for not instructing his
mum in the fine art and absolute neccesity of
making backups!
"Yesterday, my mother's computer died -- taking two years worth of email with it."
However, he does raise an interesting point. There
have been even more spectacular failures than the
Norwegian museum that he refers to; witness the BBC
in the UK's loss of much of their digital archive
due to not having any drives available to read the
optical media any more.
I can see that in 100 years all content that has not
been re-archived onto modern media will cease to exist.
What the long-term solution to this is, I have no idea!
Stone tablets would still seem to be the best way of
recording something for millenia.