So basically you just don't like the whole "Ask Slashdot" topic. It's never news and no one can guarantee that the question will always matter to you. Why not filter out the whole topic and forget about it?
PS. Yes, you are trolling and I fell for it. Well I was bored:).
...is a food inventory system, something that would keep track of how much milk, eggs, etc. I have in the fridge. It would automatically print me out a shopping list before I go to the store and alert me when I'm running low on essentials. Or if I think I'm out of carrots I can call up the inventory and see that they're just buried in the second shelf of the pantry and, oh, they're about a month old, better use them quick.
Okay, I'm dreaming now but I don't think it's so far-fetched. It would need a way to input what foods you just bought and the amounts (bar code scanner?) and then what food you just used and the amounts. Combine that with a recipe database and you can input that you just made pancakes and it will automatically deduct milk, eggs, flour....
Of course, then the kid will sneak some chocolate cake in the middle of the night and the data will get all messed up. But a girl can dream:).
Having so few transactions for a database of this size probably helps them run without needing large expensive machines. Many VLDBs support thousands of transactions per second. I found a list here of top ten winners of a very large database scalability contest. The winner for peak performance was something like 20,000+ TPS.
I definitely support the hard work of the AbiWord folks and sympathize with what they say in this letter.
I think that the underlying point is that it's difficult for them to keep up with high expectations when they are such a small group of developers. It seems to me that this is an example of a project that is, unfortunately, not benefitting from the strengths of open source development.
Ideally, when you have a project whose source is open, all users are free to contribute. The entire user body joins in the development effort and the project almost evolves by itself. That's how I understand the "bazaar" model of development.
OTOH, from the sound of this letter, AbiWord is not getting the benefit from a large user base. They still only have a small group of their users who contribute to the code or even report bugs through the proper channels. It sounds like they have fallen into the "cathedral" model, even as they are trying to be a bazaar.
So what's an open source project to do? I think they are on the right track. They need to mobilize their user base to report bugs and encourage more developers to contribute. Again, I don't mean this as criticism at all, but as encouragement. Open source is strong because everybody helps.
I realize that your comment was meant as praise, but it really belittles what she achieved.
How could her accomplishments possibly be minor compared with today's programmers? Today we may code operating systems or apps, but she helped to invent programming. She did "change the way we think about computers."
Read the obit first, it's very interesting and you might actually learn something.
Or it could be like the Yiddish tchochkelle (sp? it's pronounced choch-kuh-luh) meaning trinket or toy.
My code is my child (maybe)
on
Freedom or Power?
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
[The following is an idea that I'm just thinking about now. Could be interesting, could be stupid--let's see...]
It seems to me that the big argument here is about ownership and property rights, which everyone has strong opinions about, pro and con. However, maybe there is another approach that will make some sense to everyone. Maybe we should think of developers as guardians of their code instead of owners.
The analogy is that of a parent to a child. I don't own my child; she is free to live her own life. But I do have power over her. I gave birth to her and I have the responsibility to raise her until she is old enough to live on her own. As long as I am her guardian, I have the right, in fact the obligation, to make choices that affect her life. I decide what kind of education to give her, what morals to teach her, etc. And it's my right and obligation to protect her in her interactions with others. I set these limits because I want her to become a good, productive,giving member of society.
My code can be like my child (how many developers think of their code as their "baby"?) I created it and I put effort into improving it. I want it to become useful to others. Might I then also have the right to be its guardian and maintain custody of it when I release it into the world? Do I have the freedom to choose how I want others to use it? What do you think?
LOL, you're right! Good catch. I'll take another look at the numbers. If you want to figure it out yourself, this year (2001) was 5761 in the Jewish calendar.
Well, for starters, there is a Jewish tradition that the Great Flood took place in the Jewish year 1656, or 2104 BC, which would be about 200 years before this meteor is supposed to have hit. The Bible gives a chronology of the time from creation until the flood and, off the top of my head, I can't think of any other major cataclysms mentioned in that time.
As for crossing the Red Sea, according to Jewish history the exodus from Egypt happened in the year 2448, or 1312 BC, so the meteor would not have had much to do with the plagues or the splitting of the sea.
Sheesh,/. really is US centric. This is the common spelling and pronunciation in many countries. I know it's off topic, but someone had to say it. Incorrect spelling, huh:)!
Okay, I know I promised not to reply, but thanks to your comments I see that I need to make a correction.
"Shaheed" is the Arabic word for martyr; it's what Palestinians call suicide bombers. After every bombing, the Palestinians put the bomber's picture on posters. So that sentence could have read "There is no martyr, his 'heroic' face plastered throughout the Palestinian Authority."
I apologize for not defining the word and I'm sorry that you thought it was derogatory. I would never use a racist term.
I don't want to start a political argument or get involved in a "pissing match"./. is not the place for that (well, maybe the pissing match). However, I'm replying to your message in order to correct some of the facts you state. This will be my last message on this topic.
Palestinians are not called "Blacks" here as they are in Israel. They are considered potential citizens and given all the consideration people from other places get.
I'm not sure what you mean by "Blacks." Palestinians are not called "black" in Israel. They are called "Arab" or "Palestinian." Arabs who live in Israel proper (as opposed to the West Bank and Gaza) are full Israeli citizens. In fact, the widow and children of the suicide bomber who killed 3 people a few days ago will be receiving Social Security payments from the Israeli gov't because they "lost" their husband and father. Those who live in West Bank and Gaza have taken the title "Palestinian" because they prefer to have their own state which they will call Palestine. We can speculate whether they would accept Israeli citizenship if offered. I doubt it.
In Israel they are kept badged in concentration camps without sewerage, water, electricity or schools.
The condition of the refugee camps is awful, but most of them are not controlled by Israel at all, but by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, with controls 98% of the main Palestinian areas. The man you should be angry at is Yasser Arafat. He has received millions of dollars in international aid over the last eight years, intended to help improve sewage, water, and electricity, and get the Palestinians out of those camps. Yet you see that the conditions have not changed a drop in the last eight years, while Arafat and his close advisors have become quite rich and the rest of the money that hasn't gone into his private accounts has been spent on weapons and military buildup. Schools use textbooks that are filled with hateful statements against Israel, and children are taught to honor suicide bombers. (I wish this were an exaggeration but it's really true and has been well documented.) Unfortunately, those who could help to get rid of the camps have a stronger interest in keeping them just the way they are, in order to make Israel look bad.
The privileged are allowed outside to labor for their masters. Those that find slavery depressing are shot down like dogs.
Again, you should blame Arafat for not encouraging any sort of economic development in the Palestinian Authority. From what I've read in the American newspapers, Palestinians who have jobs in Israel are considered lucky because there are no jobs in the PA. I read of one case (I think it was on MSNBC) of a man who gets up at 4 AM every morning to walk from Bethlehem to his job in a factory north of Jerusalem, where he arrives by 9. That's very sad--such a dedicated worker should have a job in Bethlehem.
After that, how about you do something nice for some of those huge impersonal black faces in the Palestinan Authority, and encourage your friends to make a fair and lasting peace?
Don't forget they were offered all that and more last summer in Camp David. Yasser Arafat turned it down flat. Even this week Israeli officials tried to meet with Arafat to restart communications. Instead he decided to go to Syria.
Surely, most of them share your horror.
I'd like to believe that many do. But yesterday's pictures and reports prove otherwise.
When all is said and done, it's important to remember that when you are merciful to cruel people, you are cruel to merciful people. Think very carefully about who are the innocent victims and who act maliciously. Decide who truly deserves your compassion. Because in the end, there is someone out there who wanted to hurt your brother in law. That person is the perpetrator, not the victim. You, me, your brother in law, and all the innocent people who were just trying to do their jobs are the victims.
I lived in Israel last year, through several suicide bombings and many other attacks. I'm trying to compare my experience there to what it feels like here today.
There are some similarities: the grim determination to rescue, clean up, and continue life as normal and not let it affect you. The pulling together of people from all walks of life uniting to help each other. The faith that sustains.
However, this attack feels very different. I think that the biggest difference is how unbelievable this attack is. I'm still having trouble comprehending that it actually happened in real life. Most suicide bombings are sickeningly real, while this is like a horrible fantasy.
There is also a freshness to the horror here. This is something that Americans have not really had to face. It is a naivete lost, a bubble burst. Very different from the weariness that Israelis feel at yet another attack.
Another aspect of this tragedy is that, to me, it is so huge that it's impersonal, faceless. We don't know who did this, have no person to put our finger on. There is no shaheed, his "heroic" face plastered throughout the Palestinian Authority. Nor do we really know why, or even exactly what their target was. The American government? The American people? Bankers? Globalization? Or, as our leaders proclaim, Freedom and democracy?
And the losses are so massive that it's impossible to get a sense of who the victims are, unless you know someone personally. I think that's the most important thing for us to concentrate on right now: there are real people who are real victims. We can't let the sheer numbers obscure the pain. Unfortunately, this attack will redefine tragedy: from now on, if "only" a hundred people are killed, that will seem like nothing. We must remember that each person is an entire world.
No one forced Fischer to become a recluse. He chose it for himself and has gone to extreme measures to stay hidden. Read Searching For Bobby Fischer by Fred Waitzkin for details. It's a fascinating read about the chess world, a father and his chess prodigy son, and the search for Bobby Fischer. Also was made into a decent movie.
Regarding the rumor that Bobby is playing chess online, I've heard it before and I think it has been going around for a while. Could be true, but really total speculation.
...so, from my biased perspective, I would say that this is not the best job market in which to say, "it's my way or the highway." If you have a secure job with steady work then you're not in the worst situation in the world--if you're really that dissatisfied, it never hurts to look around for other jobs while keeping your current position.
That being said, I'm not quite sure what you're referring to when you complain about lack of quality. Do you (1) feel that projects are pushed out the door so quickly that you are forced to design them poorly and not test and debug enough? or (2) feel that you are doing the same tasks over and over again with no opportunities for learning or advancement?
For (1), I think that this is a legitimate concern that you can talk about with you manager and co-workers. Make sure to point out to your manager that it ultimately costs more in the long run (for you and for your customers) to have to play catch up and keep fixing bugs than if you were able to take the time and do it right the first time.
For (2), this is more a professional advancement question and also something that you should address with your manager, especially at performance review time. Ask for opportunities to work on new projects and learn new skills. Maybe your company will let you take a course or train toward a certification. You should also definitely take the initiative yourself and try to find new opportunities to grow in what you do, and show your boss that you are improving yourself.
Good luck! And if all else fails and you leave your job, let me know--I'm still looking for employment:).
Slashdot Mirror
PS. Yes, you are trolling and I fell for it. Well I was bored :).
Come on people, a thousand more posts and this will make the hof!
PS. What's so lame about a lot of exclamation points? I think they're called for here :)!
Okay, I'm dreaming now but I don't think it's so far-fetched. It would need a way to input what foods you just bought and the amounts (bar code scanner?) and then what food you just used and the amounts. Combine that with a recipe database and you can input that you just made pancakes and it will automatically deduct milk, eggs, flour....
Of course, then the kid will sneak some chocolate cake in the middle of the night and the data will get all messed up. But a girl can dream :).
Having so few transactions for a database of this size probably helps them run without needing large expensive machines. Many VLDBs support thousands of transactions per second. I found a list here of top ten winners of a very large database scalability contest. The winner for peak performance was something like 20,000+ TPS.
John Ratzenberger is listed as "Major Derlin" in the credits on IMDB.
I can't find this listed on Symantec's site or Trend Micro. Has anyone seen any real info about this worm?
I think that the underlying point is that it's difficult for them to keep up with high expectations when they are such a small group of developers. It seems to me that this is an example of a project that is, unfortunately, not benefitting from the strengths of open source development.
Ideally, when you have a project whose source is open, all users are free to contribute. The entire user body joins in the development effort and the project almost evolves by itself. That's how I understand the "bazaar" model of development.
OTOH, from the sound of this letter, AbiWord is not getting the benefit from a large user base. They still only have a small group of their users who contribute to the code or even report bugs through the proper channels. It sounds like they have fallen into the "cathedral" model, even as they are trying to be a bazaar.
So what's an open source project to do? I think they are on the right track. They need to mobilize their user base to report bugs and encourage more developers to contribute. Again, I don't mean this as criticism at all, but as encouragement. Open source is strong because everybody helps.
How could her accomplishments possibly be minor compared with today's programmers? Today we may code operating systems or apps, but she helped to invent programming. She did "change the way we think about computers."
Read the obit first, it's very interesting and you might actually learn something.
Or it could be like the Yiddish tchochkelle (sp? it's pronounced choch-kuh-luh) meaning trinket or toy.
It seems to me that the big argument here is about ownership and property rights, which everyone has strong opinions about, pro and con. However, maybe there is another approach that will make some sense to everyone. Maybe we should think of developers as guardians of their code instead of owners.
The analogy is that of a parent to a child. I don't own my child; she is free to live her own life. But I do have power over her. I gave birth to her and I have the responsibility to raise her until she is old enough to live on her own. As long as I am her guardian, I have the right, in fact the obligation, to make choices that affect her life. I decide what kind of education to give her, what morals to teach her, etc. And it's my right and obligation to protect her in her interactions with others. I set these limits because I want her to become a good, productive,giving member of society.
My code can be like my child (how many developers think of their code as their "baby"?) I created it and I put effort into improving it. I want it to become useful to others. Might I then also have the right to be its guardian and maintain custody of it when I release it into the world? Do I have the freedom to choose how I want others to use it? What do you think?
LOL, you're right! Good catch. I'll take another look at the numbers. If you want to figure it out yourself, this year (2001) was 5761 in the Jewish calendar.
As for crossing the Red Sea, according to Jewish history the exodus from Egypt happened in the year 2448, or 1312 BC, so the meteor would not have had much to do with the plagues or the splitting of the sea.
Hope that helps answer your question!
Didn't the Supreme Court already decide that VCRs are legal? Can any legal experts out there explain why this case is different?
You can check it out at http://www.opm.gov/oca/01tables/SSR/index.htm.
Hee hee, I said it was off topic, so it got modded down to off topic! Maybe next time I'll say it's insightful :).
n. Chiefly British
Variant of aluminum.
Sheesh, /. really is US centric. This is the common spelling and pronunciation in many countries. I know it's off topic, but someone had to say it. Incorrect spelling, huh :)!
Well, all those NT servers had to have been rebooted at least once by now :) !
What do you want to bet that the reporter saw GNU/Linux and thought that it was referring to two different operating systems?
"Shaheed" is the Arabic word for martyr; it's what Palestinians call suicide bombers. After every bombing, the Palestinians put the bomber's picture on posters. So that sentence could have read "There is no martyr, his 'heroic' face plastered throughout the Palestinian Authority."
I apologize for not defining the word and I'm sorry that you thought it was derogatory. I would never use a racist term.
I don't want to start a political argument or get involved in a "pissing match". /. is not the place for that (well, maybe the pissing match). However, I'm replying to your message in order to correct some of the facts you state. This will be my last message on this topic.
- Palestinians are not called "Blacks" here as they are in Israel. They are considered potential citizens and given all the consideration people from other places get.
- In Israel they are kept badged in concentration camps without sewerage, water, electricity or schools.
- The privileged are allowed outside to labor for their masters. Those that find slavery depressing are shot down like dogs.
- After that, how about you do something nice for some of those huge impersonal black faces in the Palestinan Authority, and encourage your friends to make a fair and lasting peace?
- Surely, most of them share your horror.
When all is said and done, it's important to remember that when you are merciful to cruel people, you are cruel to merciful people. Think very carefully about who are the innocent victims and who act maliciously. Decide who truly deserves your compassion. Because in the end, there is someone out there who wanted to hurt your brother in law. That person is the perpetrator, not the victim. You, me, your brother in law, and all the innocent people who were just trying to do their jobs are the victims.I'm not sure what you mean by "Blacks." Palestinians are not called "black" in Israel. They are called "Arab" or "Palestinian." Arabs who live in Israel proper (as opposed to the West Bank and Gaza) are full Israeli citizens. In fact, the widow and children of the suicide bomber who killed 3 people a few days ago will be receiving Social Security payments from the Israeli gov't because they "lost" their husband and father. Those who live in West Bank and Gaza have taken the title "Palestinian" because they prefer to have their own state which they will call Palestine. We can speculate whether they would accept Israeli citizenship if offered. I doubt it.
The condition of the refugee camps is awful, but most of them are not controlled by Israel at all, but by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, with controls 98% of the main Palestinian areas. The man you should be angry at is Yasser Arafat. He has received millions of dollars in international aid over the last eight years, intended to help improve sewage, water, and electricity, and get the Palestinians out of those camps. Yet you see that the conditions have not changed a drop in the last eight years, while Arafat and his close advisors have become quite rich and the rest of the money that hasn't gone into his private accounts has been spent on weapons and military buildup. Schools use textbooks that are filled with hateful statements against Israel, and children are taught to honor suicide bombers. (I wish this were an exaggeration but it's really true and has been well documented.) Unfortunately, those who could help to get rid of the camps have a stronger interest in keeping them just the way they are, in order to make Israel look bad.
Again, you should blame Arafat for not encouraging any sort of economic development in the Palestinian Authority. From what I've read in the American newspapers, Palestinians who have jobs in Israel are considered lucky because there are no jobs in the PA. I read of one case (I think it was on MSNBC) of a man who gets up at 4 AM every morning to walk from Bethlehem to his job in a factory north of Jerusalem, where he arrives by 9. That's very sad--such a dedicated worker should have a job in Bethlehem.
Don't forget they were offered all that and more last summer in Camp David. Yasser Arafat turned it down flat. Even this week Israeli officials tried to meet with Arafat to restart communications. Instead he decided to go to Syria.
I'd like to believe that many do. But yesterday's pictures and reports prove otherwise.
There are some similarities: the grim determination to rescue, clean up, and continue life as normal and not let it affect you. The pulling together of people from all walks of life uniting to help each other. The faith that sustains.
However, this attack feels very different. I think that the biggest difference is how unbelievable this attack is. I'm still having trouble comprehending that it actually happened in real life. Most suicide bombings are sickeningly real, while this is like a horrible fantasy.
There is also a freshness to the horror here. This is something that Americans have not really had to face. It is a naivete lost, a bubble burst. Very different from the weariness that Israelis feel at yet another attack.
Another aspect of this tragedy is that, to me, it is so huge that it's impersonal, faceless. We don't know who did this, have no person to put our finger on. There is no shaheed, his "heroic" face plastered throughout the Palestinian Authority. Nor do we really know why, or even exactly what their target was. The American government? The American people? Bankers? Globalization? Or, as our leaders proclaim, Freedom and democracy?
And the losses are so massive that it's impossible to get a sense of who the victims are, unless you know someone personally. I think that's the most important thing for us to concentrate on right now: there are real people who are real victims. We can't let the sheer numbers obscure the pain. Unfortunately, this attack will redefine tragedy: from now on, if "only" a hundred people are killed, that will seem like nothing. We must remember that each person is an entire world.
Sure, but after a thorough analysis, it will always produce a liquid that is almost, but not entirely unlike tea. :)
RIP, DNA
Some guy already registered aoltimewarnermicrosoft.com. Wonder if his investment will pay off.
Regarding the rumor that Bobby is playing chess online, I've heard it before and I think it has been going around for a while. Could be true, but really total speculation.
That being said, I'm not quite sure what you're referring to when you complain about lack of quality. Do you (1) feel that projects are pushed out the door so quickly that you are forced to design them poorly and not test and debug enough? or (2) feel that you are doing the same tasks over and over again with no opportunities for learning or advancement?
For (1), I think that this is a legitimate concern that you can talk about with you manager and co-workers. Make sure to point out to your manager that it ultimately costs more in the long run (for you and for your customers) to have to play catch up and keep fixing bugs than if you were able to take the time and do it right the first time.
For (2), this is more a professional advancement question and also something that you should address with your manager, especially at performance review time. Ask for opportunities to work on new projects and learn new skills. Maybe your company will let you take a course or train toward a certification. You should also definitely take the initiative yourself and try to find new opportunities to grow in what you do, and show your boss that you are improving yourself.
Good luck! And if all else fails and you leave your job, let me know--I'm still looking for employment :).