Discrepancies of several hundred dollars were common. The rule was, any gap less than $1k is not worth auditing.
Sorry, but this says nothing about Excel. My wife used to be an auditor (she's a financial analyst now). From what she's told me, the standard rule for any system is that gaps less than $1k are not worth auditing.
OS/400 has much more useful error messages. In most cases, a fatal error in an application will produce a job log which can be looked over by your sysadmin to determine the source of the error. Of course, the people who buy OS/400 aren't the same people who buy Windows (or at least they don't use Windows for the same types of things).
Hmmm. I'm not so sure that this is going to help sys-admins. I agree that people installing random, unapproved stuff on their PC's can be a problem, but how do you define unapproved. There are several commercial packages that, when installed on certain PC's in our environment, will cause problems. These packages will undoubtably be digitally signed in the future (if they aren't already). This "feature" of Whistler won't stop people from installing those packages. It also won't stop people from installing commercial software that they brought from home. It will, however, stop people from installing most free/shareware. Whether or not this is a good thing is up to you to decide. I don't think it is.
I am not a sys-admin, so please have patience. Aren't there already MS-approved ways of controlling software installation?
One final point, what happens when someone wants to run some older (legacy) software which isn't certified? Is it going to be handled the same way, or is there going to be a "backdoor" for currently existing software or some kind of "opt-out" list?
Yikes! I'm not sure you can compare Microsoft Office 10 to the Oracle 8i database system. I agree that lots of companies are adding subscription models to their software licensing choices. AFAIK, most of these companies are using the subscription (ASP) model to push large-scale, extremely expensive systems. The jury is still out on whether (or how well) the ASP model will work for this type of system, I think its less likely that it will work for a commodity product like an office suite.
I think that MS's new subscription model will work fine for many people. I also think that the question of whether Office 11 will be subscription-only won't be answered until MS can see the subscription vs. non-subscription revenue of Office 10.
Disclaimer: I think Gore probably won Florida, and probably will win Florida in the final analysis, and will probably suffer a miserable 4 years until the voters put him out of our misery.
Funny, I think that Bush probably won Florida, and will probably win in the final analysis. He will enjoy his 4 years in office, cheerfully unaware that he has no mandate. After those 4 years, the voters will put him out of our misery.
Opinions are funny things, and mine really isn't any more valid than yours. So far, the only thing we can take from this election is that it was very close. This means that neither candidate will have a "mandate from the people". Hopefully this will lead to moderate policies instead of gridlock. Only time will tell.
It is interesting to speculate about why the election was so close, however. Is it because we are "a nation divided" into liberal and conservative camps, like the media likes to say? Or are we a nation of moderates, who saw some good in both candidate's platforms? I believe the latter, but thats just my opinion.
Don't try to say that Free Pascal is the same thing, because it isn't.
I tried the Free Pascal compiler about a year ago (Win32 version 0.99.10) and I was not impressed. It took forever to compile (over a minute for a small console program). Even worse, the generated executable was 5 times the size of the one generated by Delphi! I didn't profile the generated code, so I can't comment on how fast it was.
Even in the impossible turn of events that Kylix be GLPed, KDE would benifit significantly more than GNOME, because Kylix is based on Qt and not GTK, and written in C++, not C -- Talk of opening it up for GNOME;)
There have been a few responses to other parts of your post so I'll stick to the "written in C++" part. I use Delphi (through 3 versions now) and I have attended a recent Borland Developer's conference. The Delphi IDE is written in Object Pascal (OP) and developed in the Delphi IDE. Most of the included libraries (the VCL/CLX) are written in OP (some of the database stuff is in C++). I'm not sure about the compiler, it might be written in C++ (or C).
I only attended a few of the many Kylix sessions at the Borland Developer's conference so I could be wrong but, its my understanding that Kylix is also written in OP. There will be a thin library that will sit between the the Visual CLX library (Object Pascal) and the Qt widgets (C++). As I understood it, this thin library could theoretically allow other programming languages access to the Qt widgets.
Doctors commonly work 80-90 hours a week. They make programmers look like wimps.
Lawyers, CEOs, practically everybody who makes the big bucks works the big hours.
The professionals that you mention all make more money than programmers.
In my
area though you can get a programming job at a bank and make good money doing 40hrs/wk,
if you want. You can't do that at a balls-to-the-wall startup, that's the nature of the game.
I also have some issues with this article. This quote in particular bothers me:
A programmer probably needs to spend 25 hours per week getting coordinated with other programmers and comprehending the structures of the systems being extended.
25 hours a week seems way too high to me. 10 or 15 I could believe, but not 25. I've been working in this industry for 10 years and the only time I spent 25 hours a week "getting coordinated" and "comprehending... systems being extended" was a couple of weeks when I had to modify a large COBOL program. I didn't know COBOL (still don't) so I ended up rewriting the program.
The other issue that bothers me is related to the one you mention:
However, I did have some issues. For example, Greenspun implies that programmers are naturally arrogant, saying that either the bad programmer is so bad that he's unwilling to accept good ideas, and that the good programmer is so good that he assumes that his idea is the best.
It seems to me, from Greenspun's assumptions and conclusions, that he is used to and prefers programmers to be young. The idea of making the office more "nicer than the average programmer's home" so that "programmers
essentially live at your office" is more likely to work with young, unmarried people. IMO, one of the common failings of youth is arrogance. This is especially true of young unmarried men who have recently graduated from college (like the "22-year-old Stanford CS punk" that Greenspun mentions). So when Greenspun says that programmers are arrogant, it means that the young, unmarried, college-educated (, male?) programmers that he is familiar with are arrogant.
I'm working on a programming project that uses the term "email" quite often in the documentation. I started off using "e-mail", but I found that the descriptions in my Visio diagrams would have line breaks after the dash, like this: e-
mail. Since that looks like hell, I switched everything to "email".
Hmmm. That does put a different light on things. In addition, your later comment that the Athenians didn't really vote for candidates, they voted on the issues directly makes me think that the idea behind the quote may be flawed. It also occurs to me that the Athenian democracy was unlike ours in that only land-owning men could vote. It is much harder to please all of the possible voters in the U.S. than it would of been in ancient Athens.
However, the question still could get some worthwhile responses from the candidates.
I like this question. I have some doubts that you could ever get an honest answer to it from Bush or Gore (maybe not from any politician). Its in their interests that the general public keeps sliding toward dependency and bondage.
BTW, where do you think the U.S. is on the above scale? I think we're in the complacent stage.
... dismissing the question as being silly or ignorant.
IM(NS)O, most of the questions were silly. The one question that I wish he had answered in more depth was number 8 (Carnivore vs. Sniffer vs. Altivore). His answer consisted of:
A number of members of the review team are quite familiar with sniffing technology. Sniffers are routinely used as network management tools.
Using a sniffing tool is not the same as developing one. He should have (at least) mentioned the years of development experience that the members of the review team have.
I don't see how someone could moderate this comment in particular down. Either the whole thread from Sips on down is flamebait or none of it is. In my experience, this quote is especially true:
Just because someone is not at work that long does not mean things are left undone. How dare you insinuate that others are slackers for working fewer hours than you.
The tech companies in the SDMI are worried about losing money. Its going to cost them a lot to develop SDMI-compliant hardware. This hardware needs to be in the market before SDMI-compliant music is generally available. It also needs to be priced competitively with non-compliant hardware.
This means that these companies are going to be losing money (or cutting their profits) over the short term. So it looks like the tech companies only hope of making money off of this deal is if the watermarking method they implement is secure over the long haul. The best way of doing that is to get as many people as they can to help the Recording Industry come up with a better consumer trap.
If these tech companies had any balls they would get out of the SDMI now instead of whining that OSS hackers aren't helping them preserve future profits.
You are crazy. The valuable senior guy you are talking about has every right to leave at 7pm. Hell, he's willing to come back at 10pm! If you had a non-postponable activity scheduled you would have every right to leave too. Of course, you may need to coordinate your schedule with your co-workers in advance. Hopefully this person did that.
Your work is not your life. Let me repeat that: YOUR WORK IS NOT YOUR LIFE! Employers need to understand this. If your employer doesn't understand this then its time to find a new job.
The problem is that when you are starting a new company you need experienced core people
who know how it's done.
I don't want to seem rude, but I can't imagine starting up a company without having a core of experienced people lined up to join me. Of course, I'm not much of a gambler.
My screen space is expensive. Why do I have to throw away a few hundred pixels on the side of the folder just to be told it's name in big letters. I suspect this will be unusable at anything less than 1024 x 768.
I agree completely. It seems like all of these dialogs have some splashy graphic taking up space. The control panel screenshot scared me - where did all of the applets go? They used up most of the screen to show us 10 items. How is this an improvement? In web terms it would be better if they fixed the "content" instead of focusing on the "presentation".
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What a well thought out post. Please get yourself an account Mr./Ms. Anonymous Coward.
In case you're browsing at 1, I'm replying to an AC who replied to jamiemccarthy.
OS/400 has much more useful error messages. In most cases, a fatal error in an application will produce a job log which can be looked over by your sysadmin to determine the source of the error. Of course, the people who buy OS/400 aren't the same people who buy Windows (or at least they don't use Windows for the same types of things).
Hmmm. I'm not so sure that this is going to help sys-admins. I agree that people installing random, unapproved stuff on their PC's can be a problem, but how do you define unapproved. There are several commercial packages that, when installed on certain PC's in our environment, will cause problems. These packages will undoubtably be digitally signed in the future (if they aren't already). This "feature" of Whistler won't stop people from installing those packages. It also won't stop people from installing commercial software that they brought from home. It will, however, stop people from installing most free/shareware. Whether or not this is a good thing is up to you to decide. I don't think it is.
I am not a sys-admin, so please have patience. Aren't there already MS-approved ways of controlling software installation?
One final point, what happens when someone wants to run some older (legacy) software which isn't certified? Is it going to be handled the same way, or is there going to be a "backdoor" for currently existing software or some kind of "opt-out" list?
Yikes! I'm not sure you can compare Microsoft Office 10 to the Oracle 8i database system. I agree that lots of companies are adding subscription models to their software licensing choices. AFAIK, most of these companies are using the subscription (ASP) model to push large-scale, extremely expensive systems. The jury is still out on whether (or how well) the ASP model will work for this type of system, I think its less likely that it will work for a commodity product like an office suite.
I think that MS's new subscription model will work fine for many people. I also think that the question of whether Office 11 will be subscription-only won't be answered until MS can see the subscription vs. non-subscription revenue of Office 10.
Opinions are funny things, and mine really isn't any more valid than yours. So far, the only thing we can take from this election is that it was very close. This means that neither candidate will have a "mandate from the people". Hopefully this will lead to moderate policies instead of gridlock. Only time will tell.
It is interesting to speculate about why the election was so close, however. Is it because we are "a nation divided" into liberal and conservative camps, like the media likes to say? Or are we a nation of moderates, who saw some good in both candidate's platforms? I believe the latter, but thats just my opinion.
I only attended a few of the many Kylix sessions at the Borland Developer's conference so I could be wrong but, its my understanding that Kylix is also written in OP. There will be a thin library that will sit between the the Visual CLX library (Object Pascal) and the Qt widgets (C++). As I understood it, this thin library could theoretically allow other programming languages access to the Qt widgets.
I liked this one; Why was it modded down?
Is one of the moderators actually a 'bot that mods down posts with LOTS OF WORDS IN ALL CAPS?I also have some issues with this article. This quote in particular bothers me:
25 hours a week seems way too high to me. 10 or 15 I could believe, but not 25. I've been working in this industry for 10 years and the only time I spent 25 hours a week "getting coordinated" and "comprehendingThe other issue that bothers me is related to the one you mention:
It seems to me, from Greenspun's assumptions and conclusions, that he is used to and prefers programmers to be young. The idea of making the office more "nicer than the average programmer's home" so that "programmers essentially live at your office" is more likely to work with young, unmarried people. IMO, one of the common failings of youth is arrogance. This is especially true of young unmarried men who have recently graduated from college (like the "22-year-old Stanford CS punk" that Greenspun mentions). So when Greenspun says that programmers are arrogant, it means that the young, unmarried, college-educated (, male?) programmers that he is familiar with are arrogant.I'm working on a programming project that uses the term "email" quite often in the documentation. I started off using "e-mail", but I found that the descriptions in my Visio diagrams would have line breaks after the dash, like this: e-
mail.
Since that looks like hell, I switched everything to "email".
Uh, Mr. "Archangel", I think your nick and your sig cancel each other out. Why should I take anything that you say seriously?
I personally agree with your whole post, but whether anyone else does or not, they should at least acknowledge the quote above.
No. Taxes are money. Assets are valued in terms of money. He's comparing money to money. Sounds about right to me.
Hmmm. That does put a different light on things. In addition, your later comment that the Athenians didn't really vote for candidates, they voted on the issues directly makes me think that the idea behind the quote may be flawed. It also occurs to me that the Athenian democracy was unlike ours in that only land-owning men could vote. It is much harder to please all of the possible voters in the U.S. than it would of been in ancient Athens.
However, the question still could get some worthwhile responses from the candidates.
I like this question. I have some doubts that you could ever get an honest answer to it from Bush or Gore (maybe not from any politician). Its in their interests that the general public keeps sliding toward dependency and bondage.
BTW, where do you think the U.S. is on the above scale? I think we're in the complacent stage.
IM(NS)O, most of the questions were silly. The one question that I wish he had answered in more depth was number 8 ( Carnivore vs. Sniffer vs. Altivore ). His answer consisted of:
Using a sniffing tool is not the same as developing one. He should have (at least) mentioned the years of development experience that the members of the review team have.The proof should be "in the pudding". You can't do an unbiased review if you're already biased.
I don't see how someone could moderate this comment in particular down. Either the whole thread from Sips on down is flamebait or none of it is. In my experience, this quote is especially true:
The tech companies in the SDMI are worried about losing money. Its going to cost them a lot to develop SDMI-compliant hardware. This hardware needs to be in the market before SDMI-compliant music is generally available. It also needs to be priced competitively with non-compliant hardware. This means that these companies are going to be losing money (or cutting their profits) over the short term. So it looks like the tech companies only hope of making money off of this deal is if the watermarking method they implement is secure over the long haul. The best way of doing that is to get as many people as they can to help the Recording Industry come up with a better consumer trap.
If these tech companies had any balls they would get out of the SDMI now instead of whining that OSS hackers aren't helping them preserve future profits.
You are crazy. The valuable senior guy you are talking about has every right to leave at 7pm. Hell, he's willing to come back at 10pm! If you had a non-postponable activity scheduled you would have every right to leave too. Of course, you may need to coordinate your schedule with your co-workers in advance. Hopefully this person did that.
Your work is not your life. Let me repeat that: YOUR WORK IS NOT YOUR LIFE! Employers need to understand this. If your employer doesn't understand this then its time to find a new job.
I don't want to seem rude, but I can't imagine starting up a company without having a core of experienced people lined up to join me. Of course, I'm not much of a gambler.
I agree completely. It seems like all of these dialogs have some splashy graphic taking up space. The control panel screenshot scared me - where did all of the applets go? They used up most of the screen to show us 10 items. How is this an improvement? In web terms it would be better if they fixed the "content" instead of focusing on the "presentation".