Java's strength is in the bredth of the standards that are defined for it. Look at C++, the only libraries people use with any great consistency are the ANSI standard libraries and they are infintesimally smaller than the Java Standard Libraries.
Give me a break. If you wanted to do anything to harm the company, you would have done it *before* you gave them your resignation. It's an entirely paranoid and unjustifiable action.
The only time to block people's access is when they are laid off or fired. Then you can't take the risk that they'd retaliate.
The only thing that escorting someone off the premise does is hurt people's feelings. Lowers the person's self worth because you're being treated with a lack of dignity and trust.
Personally, I would write your former manager and tell them how appauling that treatment was given all the good work that you contributed to them.
Because Stargate is the pinicle of Science Fiction? I would also point out that Firefly was cancelled.
The point is that there's this threshold of how *deep* TV SciFi can be before people tune out. If it doesn't appeal to the masses, it won't hold up under it's special effects budget and it will ultimately fail.
This is the face of TV SciFi.
At least Star Trek tried injecting a little depth in subtle sneaky ways. Stargate and the like are just more vapid and hollow.
I agree with you in princple but I would add that there are a couple "legitimate" aspects of science fiction..
One is the exploration of ourselves. Placing an unconventional perspective on something for the sake of exploring social issues. Star Trek:TNG, in it's better episodes did this. You can even see this in how X-Men draws parallels between their percecution and the HIV epidemic of the 80s.
Another aspect of what I might consider "hardcore" science fiction is found in the definition of "speculative fiction", the ernist attempt to speculate on our future and what possible paths, we could take. We write these things as a form of warning to ourselves when we achieve the capacity of doing something. Asimov speculates on AI and robotics and the risks we take. Orwell speculates on the political/social damage we could cause ourselves.
The Science is drawing back to what we know and building from it. Most of what we call Science Fiction to day, really is Science Fantasy.
You eat more to stay awake. I don't know about you but if I'm sleep deprived as a result staying up late coding or gaming. I do whatever it takes to stay awake the next day... Coffee with sugar in it. Pop. Foods high in carbohydrates. Of course the sugar fix only lasts 20 minutes so you're constantly looking for that sugar high to keep you up.
Additionally you'd probably are less rational about what foods you do choose.
Get enough sleep and your energy levels are more stable and you're more rational about choosing the foods that are good for you.
There are so many subjects in this to address, I am left in a bit of a tizzy.
Java Dead How?: Java's barely into it's Teens. It has many years left before it's sent to pasture. Server-side java is great. Client-side Java is useful (admittly as long as you don't need Real Time behavior).
Client Side Java: I've noticed that most people are only refering to applets and ingoring stand alone applications
Applets: Are admittedly clumsy and that's why they haven't been as successful as they could have been. You have to consider that they were at the bleeding edge of the web application notion. Back in the days when websites were nothing more than web pages and the notion of a web application was barely concieved, applets offered the first look at what served-applications might look like. With bleeding edge comes the risk of taking a wrong direction. It's easy to follow someone else's path. Java Web Start Applications are a definate improvement on the idea. They just need more time to take off.
Stand Alone Java Applications:Are great and getting even better. Why Swing environment is a nice balance in GUI development environments. It's detailed enough but not bloated. Apple may claim to have a great GUI but they've only recently been able to claim a nice GUI development environment. Java's been effective since 1.1. As for Microsoft, any GUI development environment that uses preprocessor directives for it's event management deserves to ridiculed.
Java: The Development Environment: I dare anyone to show me a development framework that promotes code reuse as effectively as Java has. In the world of C and C++, we have the ANSI standard libraries. They are peanuts in comparison to the JDK.
Microsoft's Dominance: I am impressed by the passionate statements that people are making about the fairness of this all and the justification in stating that Microsoft's killing Java. It's entirely too bad that most of the statements don't seem to consider just how dangerous the situation is. It's not hard to consider what a world dominated by a single company in one of the world's most important technological contributions of the 20th century. Why do people keep ignoring the strength in diversity and freedom of choice?
C# is J++ in sheep's clothing. They have consistently refused to play by other people's rules. Consider DCOM, Microsoft's response to CORBA. Rather than supporting a standard that was developed by dozens of companies we are left with DCOM, a technology I found to be more cryptic and complicated than CORBA.
Open Source, Linux Java and the Future:It's going to get to the stage where Microsoft becomes the only big commercial player on the block. But that doesn't have to mean that it's the only player. The Open Source movement has shown that we can give Microsoft a nod and leave them behind. They aren't worth the energy to hate. They aren't worth anything if they don't know how to share and work with people to do great things. We don't have to play by their rules. It's not hard to switch to OpenOffice. It's not hard to switch to Linux or the MacOS. It's not hard to choose a different option. Open Source is finally a stage where we've gotten off our butts and decided that making an honest contribution to the betterment of society is a good idea.... and Java's done an amasing job of supporting that process.
Java will never die because it's become more than just Sun. It's tightly coupled with the MacOS and it's strong in the Linux environment. It's embedded in the Open Source movement as one of the dominate languages. Let Microsoft play their games, leave them behind. Play by your own rules.
Slashdot Mirror
*Or*, I dunno if this will sound foolish.. Supervise them.
The law should not dictate out lives.
Java's strength is in the bredth of the standards that are defined for it. Look at C++, the only libraries people use with any great consistency are the ANSI standard libraries and they are infintesimally smaller than the Java Standard Libraries.
Give me a break. If you wanted to do anything to harm the company, you would have done it *before* you gave them your resignation. It's an entirely paranoid and unjustifiable action.
The only time to block people's access is when they are laid off or fired. Then you can't take the risk that they'd retaliate.
The only thing that escorting someone off the premise does is hurt people's feelings. Lowers the person's self worth because you're being treated with a lack of dignity and trust.
Personally, I would write your former manager and tell them how appauling that treatment was given all the good work that you contributed to them.
This is something else i didn't mention earlier but..
Smallville is good?
I've seen enough episodes to know that it relies on the "technobabble particle of the week" formula that plagued Star Trek.
Smallville isn't a good series. It's a Fantasy Soap Opera for teens.
Buffy on the other hand, while for all first appearances as a Fantasy Soap Opera for teens turnes out to be a most cleverly written show.
Because Stargate is the pinicle of Science Fiction? I would also point out that Firefly was cancelled.
The point is that there's this threshold of how *deep* TV SciFi can be before people tune out. If it doesn't appeal to the masses, it won't hold up under it's special effects budget and it will ultimately fail.
This is the face of TV SciFi.
At least Star Trek tried injecting a little depth in subtle sneaky ways. Stargate and the like are just more vapid and hollow.
It's such a shame that a good author has become so close-minded and opinionated.
I agree with you in princple but I would add that there are a couple "legitimate" aspects of science fiction..
One is the exploration of ourselves. Placing an unconventional perspective on something for the sake of exploring social issues. Star Trek:TNG, in it's better episodes did this. You can even see this in how X-Men draws parallels between their percecution and the HIV epidemic of the 80s.
Another aspect of what I might consider "hardcore" science fiction is found in the definition of "speculative fiction", the ernist attempt to speculate on our future and what possible paths, we could take. We write these things as a form of warning to ourselves when we achieve the capacity of doing something. Asimov speculates on AI and robotics and the risks we take. Orwell speculates on the political/social damage we could cause ourselves.
The Science is drawing back to what we know and building from it. Most of what we call Science Fiction to day, really is Science Fantasy.
You eat more to stay awake. I don't know about you but if I'm sleep deprived as a result staying up late coding or gaming. I do whatever it takes to stay awake the next day... Coffee with sugar in it. Pop. Foods high in carbohydrates. Of course the sugar fix only lasts 20 minutes so you're constantly looking for that sugar high to keep you up.
Additionally you'd probably are less rational about what foods you do choose.
Get enough sleep and your energy levels are more stable and you're more rational about choosing the foods that are good for you.
Or get them a Mac? All the power and effectiveness of a UNIX box and none of the headache.
:)
Beyond that, they get a User interface that is EASIER than Windows.
My parents are sales people, with next to no technical skill, they have a nice eMac and they even made an iMovie of my nephew without my help at all.
They use MSOffice for the Mac for their jobs which is completely compatable with their work.
I wish I knew who the virus writer was. I'd collect the $250K and donate it to IBM for their legal costs of fighting SCO. Mmmmm... Irony.
I knew I should have patiented the wheel!
erm, I mean only Jobs could go to the music industry.
There are so many subjects in this to address, I am left in a bit of a tizzy.
Java Dead How?: Java's barely into it's Teens. It has many years left before it's sent to pasture. Server-side java is great. Client-side Java is useful (admittly as long as you don't need Real Time behavior).
Client Side Java: I've noticed that most people are only refering to applets and ingoring stand alone applications
Applets: Are admittedly clumsy and that's why they haven't been as successful as they could have been. You have to consider that they were at the bleeding edge of the web application notion. Back in the days when websites were nothing more than web pages and the notion of a web application was barely concieved, applets offered the first look at what served-applications might look like. With bleeding edge comes the risk of taking a wrong direction. It's easy to follow someone else's path. Java Web Start Applications are a definate improvement on the idea. They just need more time to take off.
Stand Alone Java Applications:Are great and getting even better. Why Swing environment is a nice balance in GUI development environments. It's detailed enough but not bloated. Apple may claim to have a great GUI but they've only recently been able to claim a nice GUI development environment. Java's been effective since 1.1. As for Microsoft, any GUI development environment that uses preprocessor directives for it's event management deserves to ridiculed.
Java: The Development Environment: I dare anyone to show me a development framework that promotes code reuse as effectively as Java has. In the world of C and C++, we have the ANSI standard libraries. They are peanuts in comparison to the JDK.
Microsoft's Dominance: I am impressed by the passionate statements that people are making about the fairness of this all and the justification in stating that Microsoft's killing Java. It's entirely too bad that most of the statements don't seem to consider just how dangerous the situation is. It's not hard to consider what a world dominated by a single company in one of the world's most important technological contributions of the 20th century. Why do people keep ignoring the strength in diversity and freedom of choice?
C# is J++ in sheep's clothing. They have consistently refused to play by other people's rules. Consider DCOM, Microsoft's response to CORBA. Rather than supporting a standard that was developed by dozens of companies we are left with DCOM, a technology I found to be more cryptic and complicated than CORBA.
Open Source, Linux Java and the Future:It's going to get to the stage where Microsoft becomes the only big commercial player on the block. But that doesn't have to mean that it's the only player. The Open Source movement has shown that we can give Microsoft a nod and leave them behind. They aren't worth the energy to hate. They aren't worth anything if they don't know how to share and work with people to do great things. We don't have to play by their rules. It's not hard to switch to OpenOffice. It's not hard to switch to Linux or the MacOS. It's not hard to choose a different option. Open Source is finally a stage where we've gotten off our butts and decided that making an honest contribution to the betterment of society is a good idea.... and Java's done an amasing job of supporting that process.
Java will never die because it's become more than just Sun. It's tightly coupled with the MacOS and it's strong in the Linux environment. It's embedded in the Open Source movement as one of the dominate languages. Let Microsoft play their games, leave them behind. Play by your own rules.
Majeric