In the tortise/hare paradigm, Unix in all manifestations is the tortise
Having seen both sides of it, and been right burned on either, I leave the religion in church.
Really, it boils down to the individuals, and I haven't heard an argument yet that can generalize the goodness/badness of either open source or proprietary software. They have their audiences, and feed each other.
It's just another stage in the evolution of the economy.
Pretty soon, the rich will employ servants to read their email, thus countering the whole offshoring thing.
See now, it's all about finding that thread of silver in the crapheap...
How about "there is an exponential decay function in a lot of systems"
Not quite as negative a spin now, is it?
Acknowledges the fact that true passion (love or hate) only dims, never dies.
One morning at about 0330 I drove Lombard Street through all of downtown 'Frisco to the Golden Gate without stopping. More green lights in a row than I've seen before or since. Don't even recall the speed, but I don't think this system would have supported the effort...
I submit that the technical issues, while non-trivial, are an order of magnitude or so less than some of the "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH" issues.
Knew we all the facts, we could expect to see incompetence and fraud within the IRS, byzantine complexity within the laws the IRS is trying to enforce, and embarrassing behavior starting roughly with the middle class and moving upwards.
This is not a flame. The IRS, I daresay, is likely doing the optimal job in a non-optimal situation. Restated, who could do better? Seriously? I'm by no means so irritated with the system that I feel like applying for a job there with hopes of make a difference: are you?
Members of a reserve branch of the military, I've been issued a swell Common Access Card, with a chip thereon that has digital certificates and enough Privacy Act information to give the paranoid a heart attack.
I've been able to send to a non-.mil address, but I don't know if the.mil account can receive from such.
For all there is 0 expectation of privacy, you have real confidence of freedom from casual tomfoolery. If they decide you're acting at variance to Good Order and Discipline, they just crush you. Hint: a dab of common sense goes a long way in this regard.
At some point, potentially when the government wants to get serious about e-voting, we'll probably have something similar for all citizens.
Can you foresee the dichotomy? 0 anonymity and a useful network, or some level of anonymity and more noise than Motorhead breaking in a new set of Marshalls. Would that a middle-ground existed. Or that a company with some Measure of Security and Market Savoir-faire existed that could deliver an acceptible product.
I think that the bulk of the population is very physically oriented, and does well with paper.
Some are decent programmers, but the first step in programming tends to be procedural--I think it's easier to envision for the neophyte.
Functional programming is for a smarmy minority. Functional programming requires greater skill on the programmer's part, IMO, to envision what is going on.
Whether that capacity is a God-given talent or a developed skill is debatable. I favor the latter, but there has to be a genuine interest in the student.
I don't think the parens are a big deal.
I read the Introduction to Lisp Programming, and it really didn't impact me.
Reading the online reference material for Emacs Lisp was quite interesting, in addition to being some of the more well-written technical material I've encountered. Why Lisp is cool is more readily apparent, and, actually, easier to understand, than just reading some code or some evangelists spoutings.
But I don't claim to be a representative sample.
What I've been finding interesting of late is not so much Java itself, but some of the (mostly apache.org-based) tools exploding from it like rocks from Krakatoa. In particular, Keel seems to support some very high levels of abstraction.
In particular, the ant build tool, XDoclet, and a raft of XML extend Java in some genuinely interesting directions.
There is the usual evangelical rah-rah going on, but some 'there' to be found there, as well.
OK, I'm only test driving it for school; haven't been paid real cash money to implement it, yet it is provocative.
Well, their motivation remains cold, hard frogskins, with or without the new peachy tones.
I think this is a trial balloon. If it works, all the better; they get the browny points of being 'open' and all.
I, for one, think that, once Mono is fully mature, and after MS Office has been re-done in C#, we may well see a Linux binary version. Would not expect to see MS Word on Sourceforge anytime soon, mind you...
Solution 3
Develop a culture that values wisdom and stratgic thinking over foolishness and tactical thinking.
I still think your apparently simple solution is fraught with hidden complexity.
The rich will just pervert it, anyway.
Sorry if I'm being a downer.
For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
Actually, this link is rife with good stuff.
Your idea recalls people bitching about languages: we're all Americans, we should speak English!
All proposals I've heard to operationalize the (arguably good) idea smack of cures worse than the disease.
I think the market has to decide, with the minimum gubmint interference, to level the playing field.
The fact that there is a parent to drive the smartest child in your example is highly significant.
You hidden assumption of a dependency between parent and children to "ensure an adequate standard of living for a good many others - a good example - seed money for the next generations education - a family business, and good connections for everyone" is particularly interesting. Resisting the temptation to troll, what of the various disintegrating elements working against your hypothetical society? Note, for example, the sub-replacement birthrates.
How is it in Kiev?
Re:If you've ever wondered why your PHB...
on
Why PHBs Fear Linux
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
I always thought the wee tufts were allusive of horns, so that the PHB has a sort of bumbling satanism thing going on...
OK, so why is the world focused on.doc and not.rtf? Is XML your silver bullet?
I, for one, have been luke-warm on the various open source word processors. The thought of buying (and I don't mind parting with cold, hard cash when there is product to back it up) a word processor that is feature-full (outlines?), reads.doc with some fidelity, and starts in less time than it takes to brew a pot of coffee is interesting.
Said another way, interfaces are like transportation; sometimes you like the Winnebago, lots of times the Mini Cooper will do.
Annoying, the people who espouse the One True Vehicle.
Dewd!
You've been told to look busy, right? Frickin' teach yourself something! You should be the tower of power in at least one compiled language, a scripting language, and a few miscellaneous things like XML by the time they have work for you.
Find an interesting market of your company and start preparing for a better position.
Start an online degree.
Playing solitaire and reading/., while fine occasionally, are not the best use of your life.
You have to figure that "cruel and inhuman punishments have been carefully described in tiny paragraphs, so they won't conflict with the Constitution"(1) inside the EULA that would let them totally own you, once their AI figures out someone is using them in the canine fashion.
Still, it would be a sweet hack, and they might let it go on long enough to garner some sweet legal advertainment when they decide to crack down.
What, me cynical?
Recalls an ancient Chinese story.
Subsistance farmer. Prize possession: a horse, that pulls the plow. Horse escapes.
Farmer faces starvation. Neighbors console. He says:
"Good news, bad news, who can say?" (GNBNWCS)
Horse returns, drunk(1), several other wild horses in tow.
Neighbors ecstatic. This is the ancient Chinese equivalent of winning the lottery. He says:
GNBNWCS
Farmer's son out breaking one of the FNG ponies. Thrown, compound fracture, now looks like Yassir Arafat(2).
Neighbors console. He says:
GNBNWCS
The king comes through the village, gathering young men to go fight. Farmer's son is convalescing, so he stays. The rest go. (The story relates nothing of the causa belli, but it may have had something to do with evening a score with another ruler over an assasination attempt on the king's father).
At any rate, the king is defeated in battle, and the villiage sons are wiped out, except the farmer's. GNBNWCS
(1) OK, not in the original, but this is/., where a certain disrespect is a requirement.
(2) This story favors the Artistic License over the GPL
Your focus is on the data generation aspects, not the presentation and publication aspects, which (sometimes) argue in favor of Excel despite the shortcomings you cite.
Python scripts COM objects nicely as well, and, at some performance hit WRT Perl, is easier on the eyes of the newcomer.
Slashdot Mirror
In the tortise/hare paradigm, Unix in all manifestations is the tortise
Having seen both sides of it, and been right burned on either, I leave the religion in church.
Really, it boils down to the individuals, and I haven't heard an argument yet that can generalize the goodness/badness of either open source or proprietary software. They have their audiences, and feed each other.
It's just another stage in the evolution of the economy.
Pretty soon, the rich will employ servants to read their email, thus countering the whole offshoring thing.
See now, it's all about finding that thread of silver in the crapheap...
How about "there is an exponential decay function in a lot of systems"
Not quite as negative a spin now, is it?
Acknowledges the fact that true passion (love or hate) only dims, never dies.
Yes, and government queries are always Stupid Question Language.
Now you talkin' silicon!
Consult classic story of tortise vs. hare in race.
One morning at about 0330 I drove Lombard Street through all of downtown 'Frisco to the Golden Gate without stopping. More green lights in a row than I've seen before or since. Don't even recall the speed, but I don't think this system would have supported the effort...
I submit that the technical issues, while non-trivial, are an order of magnitude or so less than some of the "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH" issues.
Knew we all the facts, we could expect to see incompetence and fraud within the IRS, byzantine complexity within the laws the IRS is trying to enforce, and embarrassing behavior starting roughly with the middle class and moving upwards.
This is not a flame. The IRS, I daresay, is likely doing the optimal job in a non-optimal situation. Restated, who could do better? Seriously? I'm by no means so irritated with the system that I feel like applying for a job there with hopes of make a difference: are you?
Members of a reserve branch of the military, I've been issued a swell Common Access Card, with a chip thereon that has digital certificates and enough Privacy Act information to give the paranoid a heart attack.
.mil account can receive from such.
I've been able to send to a non-.mil address, but I don't know if the
For all there is 0 expectation of privacy, you have real confidence of freedom from casual tomfoolery. If they decide you're acting at variance to Good Order and Discipline, they just crush you. Hint: a dab of common sense goes a long way in this regard.
At some point, potentially when the government wants to get serious about e-voting, we'll probably have something similar for all citizens.
Can you foresee the dichotomy? 0 anonymity and a useful network, or some level of anonymity and more noise than Motorhead breaking in a new set of Marshalls.
Would that a middle-ground existed. Or that a company with some Measure of Security and Market Savoir-faire existed that could deliver an acceptible product.
I think that the bulk of the population is very physically oriented, and does well with paper.
Some are decent programmers, but the first step in programming tends to be procedural--I think it's easier to envision for the neophyte.
Functional programming is for a smarmy minority. Functional programming requires greater skill on the programmer's part, IMO, to envision what is going on.
Whether that capacity is a God-given talent or a developed skill is debatable. I favor the latter, but there has to be a genuine interest in the student.
I don't think the parens are a big deal.
I read the Introduction to Lisp Programming, and it really didn't impact me.
Reading the online reference material for Emacs Lisp was quite interesting, in addition to being some of the more well-written technical material I've encountered. Why Lisp is cool is more readily apparent, and, actually, easier to understand, than just reading some code or some evangelists spoutings.
But I don't claim to be a representative sample.
What I've been finding interesting of late is not so much Java itself, but some of the (mostly apache.org-based) tools exploding from it like rocks from Krakatoa.
In particular, Keel seems to support some very high levels of abstraction.
In particular, the ant build tool, XDoclet, and a raft of XML extend Java in some genuinely interesting directions.
There is the usual evangelical rah-rah going on, but some 'there' to be found there, as well.
OK, I'm only test driving it for school; haven't been paid real cash money to implement it, yet it is provocative.
Well, their motivation remains cold, hard frogskins, with or without the new peachy tones.
I think this is a trial balloon. If it works, all the better; they get the browny points of being 'open' and all.
I, for one, think that, once Mono is fully mature, and after MS Office has been re-done in C#, we may well see a Linux binary version. Would not expect to see MS Word on Sourceforge anytime soon, mind you...
Solution 3
Develop a culture that values wisdom and stratgic thinking over foolishness and tactical thinking.
I still think your apparently simple solution is fraught with hidden complexity.
The rich will just pervert it, anyway.
Sorry if I'm being a downer.
Actually, this link is rife with good stuff.
Your idea recalls people bitching about languages: we're all Americans, we should speak English!
All proposals I've heard to operationalize the (arguably good) idea smack of cures worse than the disease.
I think the market has to decide, with the minimum gubmint interference, to level the playing field.
The fact that there is a parent to drive the smartest child in your example is highly significant.
You hidden assumption of a dependency between parent and children to "ensure an adequate standard of living for a good many others - a good example - seed money for the next generations education - a family business, and good connections for everyone" is particularly interesting. Resisting the temptation to troll, what of the various disintegrating elements working against your hypothetical society? Note, for example, the sub-replacement birthrates.
How is it in Kiev?
I always thought the wee tufts were allusive of horns, so that the PHB has a sort of bumbling satanism thing going on...
OK, so why is the world focused on .doc and not .rtf? Is XML your silver bullet? .doc with some fidelity, and starts in less time than it takes to brew a pot of coffee is interesting.
I, for one, have been luke-warm on the various open source word processors. The thought of buying (and I don't mind parting with cold, hard cash when there is product to back it up) a word processor that is feature-full (outlines?), reads
Said another way, interfaces are like transportation; sometimes you like the Winnebago, lots of times the Mini Cooper will do.
Annoying, the people who espouse the One True Vehicle.
I thought the part where he made you fall into the burning ring of fire was what toughened you.
Sort of.
Sort of.
Sort of
Merry 01Apr04
Dewd! /., while fine occasionally, are not the best use of your life.
You've been told to look busy, right? Frickin' teach yourself something! You should be the tower of power in at least one compiled language, a scripting language, and a few miscellaneous things like XML by the time they have work for you.
Find an interesting market of your company and start preparing for a better position.
Start an online degree.
Playing solitaire and reading
You have to figure that "cruel and inhuman punishments have been carefully described in tiny paragraphs, so they won't conflict with the Constitution"(1) inside the EULA that would let them totally own you, once their AI figures out someone is using them in the canine fashion.
Still, it would be a sweet hack, and they might let it go on long enough to garner some sweet legal advertainment when they decide to crack down.
What, me cynical?
(1) Frank Zappa, "Joe's Garage"
Recalls an ancient Chinese story.
/., where a certain disrespect is a requirement.
Subsistance farmer. Prize possession: a horse, that pulls the plow. Horse escapes.
Farmer faces starvation. Neighbors console. He says:
"Good news, bad news, who can say?" (GNBNWCS)
Horse returns, drunk(1), several other wild horses in tow.
Neighbors ecstatic. This is the ancient Chinese equivalent of winning the lottery. He says:
GNBNWCS
Farmer's son out breaking one of the FNG ponies. Thrown, compound fracture, now looks like Yassir Arafat(2).
Neighbors console. He says:
GNBNWCS
The king comes through the village, gathering young men to go fight. Farmer's son is convalescing, so he stays. The rest go. (The story relates nothing of the causa belli, but it may have had something to do with evening a score with another ruler over an assasination attempt on the king's father).
At any rate, the king is defeated in battle, and the villiage sons are wiped out, except the farmer's.
GNBNWCS
(1) OK, not in the original, but this is
(2) This story favors the Artistic License over the GPL
Your focus is on the data generation aspects, not the presentation and publication aspects, which (sometimes) argue in favor of Excel despite the shortcomings you cite.
Python scripts COM objects nicely as well, and, at some performance hit WRT Perl, is easier on the eyes of the newcomer.