A lot of this just seems, well, strange to me. Not that I don't recognize that it happens, but that it's senseless. As if everyone wore a fish on their head, and thought it normal.
By way of background, both of my parents were good at math. My mother graduated from college summa cum laude with a BA in math (that was 1957), and my father was an engineer who could calculate most things in his head faster than you could punch them into a calculator. I grew up with the attitude that doing math was easy and normal - and that attitude was not gender-specific. Unfortunately, I do not have any sisters for comparison purposes.:-)
The environment that my daughters learned in was somewhat different. Their mother could do math, but very definitely had the idea that it was difficult. That was not the worst thing, though. The real problem, I think, was that most of their teachers had the same attitude - with the added factor that many of them thought that girls had an inherent disadvantage in math. One third-grade teacher actually told one of my daughters that girls could not do math. It angered me, but in the long run there was not much that I could do to fight it. The attitude is far too pervasive. Both of my daughters are smart, and have the ability to succeed in math-related activities. But they also both believe that it is hard, and have a confidence problem.
The whole concept of "math phobia" is a self-fulfilling one. And the idea that females are worse at math than males is a degenerate social attitude. I believe that that attitude is the reason that I have only had five female colleagues in twenty-plus years as a software developer. That would be roughly two or three percent of the total.
I can understand your frustration with the "Oh wow, its a chick that can code in C..." attitude. In many instances, it may well be patronizing. But they also might just be genuinely happy to see you in that position. As far as I am concerned, when a woman shows up in the office next to mine, I tend to be glad to see her. Chances are that she's bright, persistent, and strong enough (or enlightened enough) to work through the prejudices that she had to face. And I want to encourage her - not because it's rare that a woman *can* do the job (I think that far more can than do), but because it's unusual that one *does* do the job, and has bucked the system and prevailing attitudes to succeed at it.
Context suggests "exacerbate", though I do not think that the usage is quite correct. Either that, or perhaps food additives of extraterrestrial origin.:-)
Technically, yes. And you can't be criminally prosecuted for something of that nature, nor can it be restrained in advance. There is probably an exception for conspiracy to commit an actual crime. However, if you say something untrue that damages someone, you can be held liable for those damages. If the speech is printed, it's called libel; if spoken it is called slander.
Actually, it will only work on the IR-guided missiles. This would include the vast majority of man-portable SAMs, but not something like an RPG. Though in trying to shoot down a plane a.50-caliber machine gun would probably work better than an RPG. The threat that they are trying to defend against is from an individual outside the airport, trying to shoot down an airliner from a short but significant distance away. Far enough to avoid being noticed (and quickly killed or arrested) is probably too far to have much assurance of a hit from an RPG.
The laser system is apparently designed to spoof IR seekers (slightly better article; company PR site), which seems fairly intriguing. As a feasibility study, this is probably a good idea. But I think that it would be a waste of time and money to install it on airliners in general.
Good point - the occasional good leader seems more an accident of party affiliation than anything else. In locales where one party dominates, the real battle (if there is one) is won or lost in the primary for that party. Unless one votes in that primary, one effectively has no voice in the selection.
Oh, and (offtopic) thanks for the Mireille Mathieu lyrics the other day, though they were short-lived.
IIRC, there was an ice storm Christmas Eve (or maybe the day before) last year. And there was at least one storm a month or so later the got me off work for a day. I wouldn't say that there has been a noticeable change over the last twenty years (which is a completely insignificant time span in any case).
You have a whole list of tools. What you need to learn are design skills, how to abstract, how to put together a piece of software. What quality is, and how to go about getting there. As was mentioned, learn how to put together a good UI.
Yes, you have to learn tools. But be aware that there is more to it than that, that your ultimate success of failure will depend on your vision, not the facility with which you use your tools.
I am reminded of the amusement of a master carpenter when confronted by an apprentice with a shiny new box of tools. You will, at some point, learn how to use a hammer. But knowing how to use a hammer does not teach you how to build a house.
We reported on this a few days ago, but this is more info about the largest doners.
Translation: "I know this is a dupe, but I'm going to give you a lame excuse and post it anyway. Hey, at least I changed the headline!"
And "doners". Do you suppose that's a typo for "donors" or for "boners"?
Re:Join the Dark Side
on
Effective XML
·
· Score: 2, Informative
HTML significantly predates XML. Though both are derived from SGML, they are in somewhat different categories (HTML being an application of SGML, while XML is a profile). HTML is a closed development path, however; future versions will be XHTML, which is a derivative (application) of XML.
Actually, it's eMusic.com (as you've probably noticed from my other comment by now). eMusic has music that is generally less popular, but is significantly cheaper. As a software developer, I think it's the height of hypocrisy to steal music while wanting to be paid for your own work. I don't do that. On the other hand, I bought a disc recently that had copy protection, because they had put the price sticker over the "may not work on some computers" sticker. I felt no compunction at all for holding down the shift key while putting the disc in the computer. Nor would I hesitate to make a copy of a disc to play in my car CD player.
Nope. eMusic basic membership, $10 per month for 40 downloads. I misremembered, Genius Loves Company only cost me $3. The selection at eMusic isn't that great, but I haven't failed to find 40 tracks a month that are worth a quarter each. Particularly if you like older jazz and older music in general.
Given that I downloaded all of Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company for only $4, I'm not surprised. If there was something of value in the disc package besides the music, I would have been willing to buy it. But the extra $15 (to get to the recommeded retail price) just isn't worth it.
For maximum efficiency, you should always use black text on a black background. You should know your code well enough that you don't have to re-read it!
A single seller might have hundreds of items for sale at any given time. To have more buyers than sellers, over a particular time period, all it means is that the average number of items bought per buyer is lower than the average number of items sold per seller. The totals will be the same, but numbers per will be (perhaps wildly) different.
Your point is good (particularly the virus/scanner "arms race"), but not because of the halting problem. What you meant to say was the undecidability of the halting problem. Even so, to write off all automated analysis of software on that basis is a gross mis-generalization of the halting problem. The undecidability of the halting problem is a very narrow statement, and depends completely on the use of an algorithm to analyze a representation of itself. It is a theoretical statement of the power of an slgorithm, and has never been applied in a practical circumstance (to my knowledge, anyway; any such example would be eagerly anticipated). In fact, per the Wikipedia article, there is a generalized algorithm to solve the halting problem for any finite machine (though it is so inefficient as to be useless).
Slashdot Mirror
He was talking about Chavez, not Bush.
A lot of this just seems, well, strange to me. Not that I don't recognize that it happens, but that it's senseless. As if everyone wore a fish on their head, and thought it normal.
:-)
By way of background, both of my parents were good at math. My mother graduated from college summa cum laude with a BA in math (that was 1957), and my father was an engineer who could calculate most things in his head faster than you could punch them into a calculator. I grew up with the attitude that doing math was easy and normal - and that attitude was not gender-specific. Unfortunately, I do not have any sisters for comparison purposes.
The environment that my daughters learned in was somewhat different. Their mother could do math, but very definitely had the idea that it was difficult. That was not the worst thing, though. The real problem, I think, was that most of their teachers had the same attitude - with the added factor that many of them thought that girls had an inherent disadvantage in math. One third-grade teacher actually told one of my daughters that girls could not do math. It angered me, but in the long run there was not much that I could do to fight it. The attitude is far too pervasive. Both of my daughters are smart, and have the ability to succeed in math-related activities. But they also both believe that it is hard, and have a confidence problem.
The whole concept of "math phobia" is a self-fulfilling one. And the idea that females are worse at math than males is a degenerate social attitude. I believe that that attitude is the reason that I have only had five female colleagues in twenty-plus years as a software developer. That would be roughly two or three percent of the total.
I can understand your frustration with the "Oh wow, its a chick that can code in C..." attitude. In many instances, it may well be patronizing. But they also might just be genuinely happy to see you in that position. As far as I am concerned, when a woman shows up in the office next to mine, I tend to be glad to see her. Chances are that she's bright, persistent, and strong enough (or enlightened enough) to work through the prejudices that she had to face. And I want to encourage her - not because it's rare that a woman *can* do the job (I think that far more can than do), but because it's unusual that one *does* do the job, and has bucked the system and prevailing attitudes to succeed at it.
Context suggests "exacerbate", though I do not think that the usage is quite correct. Either that, or perhaps food additives of extraterrestrial origin. :-)
Technically, yes. And you can't be criminally prosecuted for something of that nature, nor can it be restrained in advance. There is probably an exception for conspiracy to commit an actual crime. However, if you say something untrue that damages someone, you can be held liable for those damages. If the speech is printed, it's called libel; if spoken it is called slander.
Concerning the relative merits of the Shuttle vs. heavy-lift single-use boosters.
Actually, it will only work on the IR-guided missiles. This would include the vast majority of man-portable SAMs, but not something like an RPG. Though in trying to shoot down a plane a .50-caliber machine gun would probably work better than an RPG. The threat that they are trying to defend against is from an individual outside the airport, trying to shoot down an airliner from a short but significant distance away. Far enough to avoid being noticed (and quickly killed or arrested) is probably too far to have much assurance of a hit from an RPG.
The laser system is apparently designed to spoof IR seekers (slightly better article; company PR site), which seems fairly intriguing. As a feasibility study, this is probably a good idea. But I think that it would be a waste of time and money to install it on airliners in general.
Good point - the occasional good leader seems more an accident of party affiliation than anything else. In locales where one party dominates, the real battle (if there is one) is won or lost in the primary for that party. Unless one votes in that primary, one effectively has no voice in the selection.
Oh, and (offtopic) thanks for the Mireille Mathieu lyrics the other day, though they were short-lived.
IIRC, there was an ice storm Christmas Eve (or maybe the day before) last year. And there was at least one storm a month or so later the got me off work for a day. I wouldn't say that there has been a noticeable change over the last twenty years (which is a completely insignificant time span in any case).
You have a whole list of tools. What you need to learn are design skills, how to abstract, how to put together a piece of software. What quality is, and how to go about getting there. As was mentioned, learn how to put together a good UI.
Yes, you have to learn tools. But be aware that there is more to it than that, that your ultimate success of failure will depend on your vision, not the facility with which you use your tools.
I am reminded of the amusement of a master carpenter when confronted by an apprentice with a shiny new box of tools. You will, at some point, learn how to use a hammer. But knowing how to use a hammer does not teach you how to build a house.
One would think that people would oppose it (text of the bill (RTF document)). But... It has passed, or is under consideration, in other states. Microsoft is not the sole originator, but a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council. It supposedly "...advances the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism and individual liberty...", but actually seems more interested in making corporate policy into state law.
The Microsoft campaign contributions mentioned in the article (a slightly more readable version) are also worth noting.
He's writing books about dogs these days. I saw one in the bookstore a couple of weeks ago. Still the same mushy-headed crap, though.
All this talk about a "...rod-like column of glowing power".
Congrats, FK! 7000 comments. Now you really don't have a life. :-)
:-D
Perhaps Michael has a life now, though something tells me he will just find another place to exercise his small-mindedness.
My kingdom for a "+1, Ironic" moderation!!!
It's called "Lux-In".
The IDF probably doesn't want people who attack the darkness. :-)
We reported on this a few days ago, but this is more info about the largest doners.
Translation: "I know this is a dupe, but I'm going to give you a lame excuse and post it anyway. Hey, at least I changed the headline!"
And "doners". Do you suppose that's a typo for "donors" or for "boners"?
HTML significantly predates XML. Though both are derived from SGML, they are in somewhat different categories (HTML being an application of SGML, while XML is a profile). HTML is a closed development path, however; future versions will be XHTML, which is a derivative (application) of XML.
Actually, it's eMusic.com (as you've probably noticed from my other comment by now). eMusic has music that is generally less popular, but is significantly cheaper. As a software developer, I think it's the height of hypocrisy to steal music while wanting to be paid for your own work. I don't do that. On the other hand, I bought a disc recently that had copy protection, because they had put the price sticker over the "may not work on some computers" sticker. I felt no compunction at all for holding down the shift key while putting the disc in the computer. Nor would I hesitate to make a copy of a disc to play in my car CD player.
:-) Didn't even think about that sig when I wrote the post. My tastes are somewhat wider than most people I know.
Nope. eMusic basic membership, $10 per month for 40 downloads. I misremembered, Genius Loves Company only cost me $3. The selection at eMusic isn't that great, but I haven't failed to find 40 tracks a month that are worth a quarter each. Particularly if you like older jazz and older music in general.
Given that I downloaded all of Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company for only $4, I'm not surprised. If there was something of value in the disc package besides the music, I would have been willing to buy it. But the extra $15 (to get to the recommeded retail price) just isn't worth it.
For maximum efficiency, you should always use black text on a black background. You should know your code well enough that you don't have to re-read it!
A single seller might have hundreds of items for sale at any given time. To have more buyers than sellers, over a particular time period, all it means is that the average number of items bought per buyer is lower than the average number of items sold per seller. The totals will be the same, but numbers per will be (perhaps wildly) different.
Your point is good (particularly the virus/scanner "arms race"), but not because of the halting problem. What you meant to say was the undecidability of the halting problem. Even so, to write off all automated analysis of software on that basis is a gross mis-generalization of the halting problem. The undecidability of the halting problem is a very narrow statement, and depends completely on the use of an algorithm to analyze a representation of itself. It is a theoretical statement of the power of an slgorithm, and has never been applied in a practical circumstance (to my knowledge, anyway; any such example would be eagerly anticipated). In fact, per the Wikipedia article, there is a generalized algorithm to solve the halting problem for any finite machine (though it is so inefficient as to be useless).