Is there one tiny bit of meaning to this post? What the hell does this mean? Trust for what? Trust to sleep with our 13 year old son/daughter? Trust that the cats will be fed and the litter box cleaned? Trusted to make good on its World Bank debt? This has got ot be the silliest posting I've ever seen here!
Hurray! Another wizard who's cornered the market on reality! Get a grip.
Your idea of reality means that the cash in your pocket is really only paper with a bit of ink, and it's not really worth the potatoes in your pantry, so you should really be out collecting grubs and tubers to feed yourself. Maybe you'd convince your employer to pay you in chickens and rice? Or maybe you're not old enough to have to support yourself in the 'real world' yet.
I feel your pain. I've been waiting six weeks for a simple Java package install on my HP-UX server. I could do it in a couple hours, including patch research and install, but you have to go through channels. I could admin the box to a better level than it is at now. We've got a dozen developers working in the same directory with the same login, and with no code control./usr/local and everything under it is at mode 777. And they worry about us running Apache and Tomcat for an internal info site!
If it's that important, are you really going to trust an off-the-shelf product for your security? Especially one that has open source code? If what you're protecting is going to compel someone to sniff your network for packet patterns, should you be trusting an open network?
For the rest of us, what level of paranoia justifies going to greater lengths than SSH/SSL? What's the likelihood that someone's sniffing random packets and appying heuristics to find my password or credit card number? Wouldn't it be easier to get that info by looking on my desk or in my wallet?
How about you learn what a 4-16 CPU PA-RISC server is about and port the kernel and support its I/O subystem and its firmware pre-boot sequence and get that Redhat distro up and running first. Then you go ahead and port the standard stuff and get it installed, and then test it all so severely that I can build my enterprise around it. And then when I've got 50-100 of them running you can sit up waiting for my calls when one of them burps.
These aren't the PC's in your basement guys. These are servers for the real world. HP's putting this stuff on its D,R,L,K,and T series servers and others. Quad or better CPU, 4Gb RAM, TB raid storage, proprietary bus. It's not a simple distro install and config.
Can you do that for 2000 customers, who have over 250 servers each? Can Redhat do this? Mandrake? SuSe? Can you do it on an enterprise class K or V series server?
Is HP going to make this distro up to the HP-UX standard we're accustomed to? Will it have the Glance Plus Pack available for server monitoring? Will it integrate well with HP Open View and other tools? If so, it's going to be well worth the $3K they're asking. If they're writing that class of software for Linux they've certainly been through the compilers and libraries with a fine comb. I'd certainly trust their distro more than anything out there now. I've developed on HP-UX since '95 and I've grown to trust their OS and their tools. If they can give me the same feeling with Linux I'd be grateful.
When you buy enterprise systems from HP or Sun or another big player you pay for far more than a box with a CPU and bunch of wires and a CD or two. They build to spec and install software. If you buy enough from them they'll even set it up for your network, even with proper IP and users. If you pay a bit more they'll come out and put it in the rack and power it up for you. It's not like buying a PC from Dell.
Have you hired a competent System Admin lately? Or better yet, and more accurately, have you hired a competenet System Admin lately and not given him five times more work than he can do adequately? If I can buy a server, like an enterprise class HP box, with security features built in and well documented, I'll do it rather than relying on the overworked or underskilled SA. Too often they say "Trust me." while they sneaks in after hours to patch the holes he didn't get to when he told me he did it.
For $3000 you should get a Linux distro that's as stable and well-behaved as HP-UX. Redhat or Mandrake or any other off-the-shelf distro isn't there yet.
And you'll get the HP support, which is also far more than you'll get from Redhat or the others.
I'd personally love to come to work tomorrow and find my new quad-processor K-class box running Linux. Or maybe that V-class monster in the other room.
The browser generally has nothing to do with connecting to an ISP. It's in the dialer. By 'not support' I think you mean that you can't install their distribution CDs. If you get the IP/proxy/DHCP info you'll probably find you can get to about any one of these. I know that Worldnet and Earthlink work just fine on Linux with other browsers. It's been a while but I've had either working on my Linux box. I'm currently using AT&T@Home cable access.
You mean it was REwritten in one month by 3 guys. It's easy to write something if you've got the design and behavior given to you and modelled in another language.
I've recently put my 7 years of C++ development experience behind me and switched to Java web develoment. What I find is that it's not Java itself that is significant, but the web paradigm in which it is being used. Java is just a development language, and like C++ or anything else there is good and bad about it. Personally, I'd much rather be writing in C++, but you simply can't write servlets with it.
I expect that in the next 5 years we'll find that the web server/app server model of the net will be obsolete, and we'll have any number of net access points, many suited to Java, others to C++ or whatever else. What we have now is too constricting, and it's going to change. Hopefully it won't be tied to a language (or to M$).
What does a Mob do?
on
Mob Software
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Has a mob ever built a cathedral? Has a Mob ever written poetry? Part of what makes a 'Mob' a mob is its mindlessness, its random application of its great energy and enthusiasm. A team or an army is far more productive. The only thing inviting about a mob is that it's activities are generally free.
Now, regarding the actual text. Termite behavior can be likened to herd behavior. The reason you see more organized pursuits when there are more in the locale is because it takes a certain number to make a herd. Two or three wander. In a larger group one may decide to follow another, and anotehr follow the two, until you have several groups acting in a coordinated fashion. It may appear that there is a higher level coordination, when in reality you have several small groups acting independently, randomly. It appears that work is getting done according to some great plan, but in fact it's just the cumulative effect of several random efforts. When you're moving dirt to make a tunnel or cavern, moving it anywhere but in the middle is good.
Regarding how software is written and how languages today are used, it's a factor of the capabilities of the hardware. What machine today can do anything but store, branch, and jump to the next instruction? When that's all your hardware can do, what do you expect from the logic driving the thing?
The writer discusses the workshopping of writers, writers working together, reading and critiquing. When a developer reaches a certain maturity they often go searching for their next mentor. They've learned all they can alone and need the next kernel of insight. They get this from networking, going to SIGs and user groups. They share experiences and techniques, tools and code snippets. I can tell you that many of the neat tricks I've used in my current project aren't mine. They're from the genius on my last project who had hours every night to make neat things in his basement and bring to work in nice packages for the rest of us to build from. If you grow abeyond your 'job' as a developer you can become a member of your developer community. It's empowering.
The writer claims that capitalism nas made it 'literally impossible to teach and develop extraordinary software designers, architects, and builders'. Who is he to judge? How much of the software world has he seen? By what credentials does he make this claim? Has no one heard of 'The Gang of Four'? Does no one know Kernigan and Ritchie? Who are even known by the combination of the first letters of their names (K&R coding style)? I promise you that Melville sat in a quite room quite alone to write his novel. Hemingway as well. And I'm certain they didn't use design patterns or a development methodology for their works. And they certianly didn't work as part of a mob.
Software is a commodity. It is a tool, a conduit, a presentation platform. It is not an extension of your personality poured onto canvas or paper. It's not a monument. It has no greater purpose than its design specification. Only those with an odd sense of need read the OED from cover to cover. Software, like the OED, is a tool. It is a logical conclusion to a defined need, constructed in a deterministic fashion. It's not abstract. It's not open for interpretation.
Processors are vitally important chips because they execute software instructions that control computers, cellular phones, communications equipment and dozens of other high-tech products.
I'm glad they brought that out. I thought maybe processors were for making Juliene Potatoes! That cracks me up. Who were they writing this for? Fourth graders?
Besides the article fluff, where's the real specs on the chip? Where can we get some specifics?
The fact that you're talking about 'the Killer App of a website' makes me think you've never done web development for a large corporate customer. Large corporations don't think of their business as a 'website'. It's their enterprise, their whole business. It's spanning a handful or a dozen business units, with various platforms, languages, and systems. EJB's aren't 'neat', they're critical whe you're pushing information around to several hundred people across a campus of a dozen buildings in several cities. The 'website' is one end of a big beast, the pretty end. Web services are the rest of it. And Apache doesn't touch any of it.
All this shouting about IP and digital copy protection and DRM has everyone upset and thinking the virtual sky is going to fall on them. All the history of commerce and ownwership and copyright and the related shows that no matter what is legislated, mandated, or threatened, any conclusion that makes a technology or product inconvenient to have or use or own will fail. Any product that cannot be owned, transacted, or used without inconvenience will fail to be profitable. Any technology that keeps a product or service from being used easily will be replaced with something new, or will be morphed (legally or not) into something that people appreciate. Otherwise it will fail. It's why radios and cell phones got smaller. It's why newspapers still cost $0.50 and books are expensive, and why flying cars aren't everywhere. It's why liquor is still legal.
What's important to remember is that it will not happen overnight. It will happen over years, decades, or generations.
There is no terminal velocity when there's no air resistance. You need to look for stories about the early very high altitude parachute tests. That sky diver broke the speed of sound. Since it was in near vacuum however there was little effect. I think he started around the 85,000 foot mark.
Of everything I've read or heard in the last month this has to be the least significant item in the mix. There is absolutely nothing of worth in this article. I think I was more enthused by the notice that we're required to recycle toner cartridges.
Someone mod this guy with a quick but firm blow to the head.
Market prioritization is what brought out the snake oil salesmen and ponzi schemers of the early 1900's. Markets of people looking for miracle cures and instant wealth pushed the market to promote fraud. The government then got involved and we can now trust most of what we see advertised.
You think that didn't happen? That all the Nazis did was just thrown away? I doubt it. Scientitsts and doctors aren't like that. Learning is learning, and it's all good, no matter who does it.
It's in that part about Congress getting to make laws and create a budget. It has a bit to do with that part about the President signing bills and such.
If it weren't for government funding we'd still be dying of smallpox and polio. Cancer would be killing thousands more every year. You'd probably be doubled over in the can because of poor hygiene and drinking your own waste.
Probably our government's greatest accomplishment has been its improvement to national health. It sets standards of food processign and preparation. It promotes vaccination. It funds the CDC to keep epidemics from wiping out great numbers of people. What do you think really keeps third-world countries down? It's not so much industry, but lack of national health funding.
I likewise read books on my Palm. I've got about 20 texts stored there, far more than I could carry otherwise. Many are texts I would never by, like the Consitution of the United States. I have it because I could download it for free and because it was there. Some texts I've bought only after I've read them on the Palm. Oddly enough, I've never opened them in paper form.
The Palm eBook reader works for me. I can read on break at work, and I've even read the Palm in bed. I love my paper books. They're one of the few things I'm dedicated to. I'd never give them up. But I think if you're a true reader, the format isn't a barrier to enjoying the read.
I've been wanting to build a custom case but I run into the problem of having the PCI cards standing on the motherboard. Does anyone know where I can get cables that would let me relocate the cards? Or if they exist?
Slashdot Mirror
Is there one tiny bit of meaning to this post? What the hell does this mean? Trust for what? Trust to sleep with our 13 year old son/daughter? Trust that the cats will be fed and the litter box cleaned? Trusted to make good on its World Bank debt? This has got ot be the silliest posting I've ever seen here!
Hurray! Another wizard who's cornered the market on reality! Get a grip.
Your idea of reality means that the cash in your pocket is really only paper with a bit of ink, and it's not really worth the potatoes in your pantry, so you should really be out collecting grubs and tubers to feed yourself. Maybe you'd convince your employer to pay you in chickens and rice? Or maybe you're not old enough to have to support yourself in the 'real world' yet.
I feel your pain. I've been waiting six weeks for a simple Java package install on my HP-UX server. I could do it in a couple hours, including patch research and install, but you have to go through channels. I could admin the box to a better level than it is at now. We've got a dozen developers working in the same directory with the same login, and with no code control. /usr/local and everything under it is at mode 777. And they worry about us running Apache and Tomcat for an internal info site!
If it's that important, are you really going to trust an off-the-shelf product for your security? Especially one that has open source code? If what you're protecting is going to compel someone to sniff your network for packet patterns, should you be trusting an open network?
For the rest of us, what level of paranoia justifies going to greater lengths than SSH/SSL? What's the likelihood that someone's sniffing random packets and appying heuristics to find my password or credit card number? Wouldn't it be easier to get that info by looking on my desk or in my wallet?
How about you learn what a 4-16 CPU PA-RISC server is about and port the kernel and support its I/O subystem and its firmware pre-boot sequence and get that Redhat distro up and running first. Then you go ahead and port the standard stuff and get it installed, and then test it all so severely that I can build my enterprise around it. And then when I've got 50-100 of them running you can sit up waiting for my calls when one of them burps.
These aren't the PC's in your basement guys. These are servers for the real world. HP's putting this stuff on its D,R,L,K,and T series servers and others. Quad or better CPU, 4Gb RAM, TB raid storage, proprietary bus. It's not a simple distro install and config.
Can you do that for 2000 customers, who have over 250 servers each? Can Redhat do this? Mandrake? SuSe? Can you do it on an enterprise class K or V series server?
I'm going to trust HP, thank you.
Is HP going to make this distro up to the HP-UX standard we're accustomed to? Will it have the Glance Plus Pack available for server monitoring? Will it integrate well with HP Open View and other tools? If so, it's going to be well worth the $3K they're asking. If they're writing that class of software for Linux they've certainly been through the compilers and libraries with a fine comb. I'd certainly trust their distro more than anything out there now. I've developed on HP-UX since '95 and I've grown to trust their OS and their tools. If they can give me the same feeling with Linux I'd be grateful.
When you buy enterprise systems from HP or Sun or another big player you pay for far more than a box with a CPU and bunch of wires and a CD or two. They build to spec and install software. If you buy enough from them they'll even set it up for your network, even with proper IP and users. If you pay a bit more they'll come out and put it in the rack and power it up for you. It's not like buying a PC from Dell.
Have you hired a competent System Admin lately? Or better yet, and more accurately, have you hired a competenet System Admin lately and not given him five times more work than he can do adequately? If I can buy a server, like an enterprise class HP box, with security features built in and well documented, I'll do it rather than relying on the overworked or underskilled SA. Too often they say "Trust me." while they sneaks in after hours to patch the holes he didn't get to when he told me he did it.
For $3000 you should get a Linux distro that's as stable and well-behaved as HP-UX. Redhat or Mandrake or any other off-the-shelf distro isn't there yet.
And you'll get the HP support, which is also far more than you'll get from Redhat or the others.
I'd personally love to come to work tomorrow and find my new quad-processor K-class box running Linux. Or maybe that V-class monster in the other room.
The browser generally has nothing to do with connecting to an ISP. It's in the dialer. By 'not support' I think you mean that you can't install their distribution CDs. If you get the IP/proxy/DHCP info you'll probably find you can get to about any one of these. I know that Worldnet and Earthlink work just fine on Linux with other browsers. It's been a while but I've had either working on my Linux box. I'm currently using AT&T@Home cable access.
Why the new Coke failed
Whether there really were two gunmen
Radio emmissions from my cell phone eating my brain
Cellulite
Genetically modified crops
My wife will certainly be happy to see me stop pacing all night.
You mean it was REwritten in one month by 3 guys. It's easy to write something if you've got the design and behavior given to you and modelled in another language.
I've recently put my 7 years of C++ development experience behind me and switched to Java web develoment. What I find is that it's not Java itself that is significant, but the web paradigm in which it is being used. Java is just a development language, and like C++ or anything else there is good and bad about it. Personally, I'd much rather be writing in C++, but you simply can't write servlets with it.
I expect that in the next 5 years we'll find that the web server/app server model of the net will be obsolete, and we'll have any number of net access points, many suited to Java, others to C++ or whatever else. What we have now is too constricting, and it's going to change. Hopefully it won't be tied to a language (or to M$).
Has a mob ever built a cathedral? Has a Mob ever written poetry? Part of what makes a 'Mob' a mob is its mindlessness, its random application of its great energy and enthusiasm. A team or an army is far more productive. The only thing inviting about a mob is that it's activities are generally free.
Now, regarding the actual text. Termite behavior can be likened to herd behavior. The reason you see more organized pursuits when there are more in the locale is because it takes a certain number to make a herd. Two or three wander. In a larger group one may decide to follow another, and anotehr follow the two, until you have several groups acting in a coordinated fashion. It may appear that there is a higher level coordination, when in reality you have several small groups acting independently, randomly. It appears that work is getting done according to some great plan, but in fact it's just the cumulative effect of several random efforts. When you're moving dirt to make a tunnel or cavern, moving it anywhere but in the middle is good.
Regarding how software is written and how languages today are used, it's a factor of the capabilities of the hardware. What machine today can do anything but store, branch, and jump to the next instruction? When that's all your hardware can do, what do you expect from the logic driving the thing?
The writer discusses the workshopping of writers, writers working together, reading and critiquing. When a developer reaches a certain maturity they often go searching for their next mentor. They've learned all they can alone and need the next kernel of insight. They get this from networking, going to SIGs and user groups. They share experiences and techniques, tools and code snippets. I can tell you that many of the neat tricks I've used in my current project aren't mine. They're from the genius on my last project who had hours every night to make neat things in his basement and bring to work in nice packages for the rest of us to build from. If you grow abeyond your 'job' as a developer you can become a member of your developer community. It's empowering.
The writer claims that capitalism nas made it 'literally impossible to teach and develop extraordinary software designers, architects, and builders'. Who is he to judge? How much of the software world has he seen? By what credentials does he make this claim? Has no one heard of 'The Gang of Four'? Does no one know Kernigan and Ritchie? Who are even known by the combination of the first letters of their names (K&R coding style)? I promise you that Melville sat in a quite room quite alone to write his novel. Hemingway as well. And I'm certain they didn't use design patterns or a development methodology for their works. And they certianly didn't work as part of a mob.
Software is a commodity. It is a tool, a conduit, a presentation platform. It is not an extension of your personality poured onto canvas or paper. It's not a monument. It has no greater purpose than its design specification. Only those with an odd sense of need read the OED from cover to cover. Software, like the OED, is a tool. It is a logical conclusion to a defined need, constructed in a deterministic fashion. It's not abstract. It's not open for interpretation.
I hope the birdies keep singing in his world.
Processors are vitally important chips because they execute software instructions that control computers, cellular phones, communications equipment and dozens of other high-tech products.
I'm glad they brought that out. I thought maybe processors were for making Juliene Potatoes! That cracks me up. Who were they writing this for? Fourth graders?
Besides the article fluff, where's the real specs on the chip? Where can we get some specifics?
The fact that you're talking about 'the Killer App of a website' makes me think you've never done web development for a large corporate customer. Large corporations don't think of their business as a 'website'. It's their enterprise, their whole business. It's spanning a handful or a dozen business units, with various platforms, languages, and systems. EJB's aren't 'neat', they're critical whe you're pushing information around to several hundred people across a campus of a dozen buildings in several cities. The 'website' is one end of a big beast, the pretty end. Web services are the rest of it. And Apache doesn't touch any of it.
All this shouting about IP and digital copy protection and DRM has everyone upset and thinking the virtual sky is going to fall on them. All the history of commerce and ownwership and copyright and the related shows that no matter what is legislated, mandated, or threatened, any conclusion that makes a technology or product inconvenient to have or use or own will fail. Any product that cannot be owned, transacted, or used without inconvenience will fail to be profitable. Any technology that keeps a product or service from being used easily will be replaced with something new, or will be morphed (legally or not) into something that people appreciate. Otherwise it will fail. It's why radios and cell phones got smaller. It's why newspapers still cost $0.50 and books are expensive, and why flying cars aren't everywhere. It's why liquor is still legal.
What's important to remember is that it will not happen overnight. It will happen over years, decades, or generations.
There is no terminal velocity when there's no air resistance. You need to look for stories about the early very high altitude parachute tests. That sky diver broke the speed of sound. Since it was in near vacuum however there was little effect. I think he started around the 85,000 foot mark.
Of everything I've read or heard in the last month this has to be the least significant item in the mix. There is absolutely nothing of worth in this article. I think I was more enthused by the notice that we're required to recycle toner cartridges.
Someone mod this guy with a quick but firm blow to the head.
Market prioritization is what brought out the snake oil salesmen and ponzi schemers of the early 1900's. Markets of people looking for miracle cures and instant wealth pushed the market to promote fraud. The government then got involved and we can now trust most of what we see advertised.
You think that didn't happen? That all the Nazis did was just thrown away? I doubt it. Scientitsts and doctors aren't like that. Learning is learning, and it's all good, no matter who does it.
It's in that part about Congress getting to make laws and create a budget. It has a bit to do with that part about the President signing bills and such.
If it weren't for government funding we'd still be dying of smallpox and polio. Cancer would be killing thousands more every year. You'd probably be doubled over in the can because of poor hygiene and drinking your own waste.
Probably our government's greatest accomplishment has been its improvement to national health. It sets standards of food processign and preparation. It promotes vaccination. It funds the CDC to keep epidemics from wiping out great numbers of people. What do you think really keeps third-world countries down? It's not so much industry, but lack of national health funding.
I likewise read books on my Palm. I've got about 20 texts stored there, far more than I could carry otherwise. Many are texts I would never by, like the Consitution of the United States. I have it because I could download it for free and because it was there. Some texts I've bought only after I've read them on the Palm. Oddly enough, I've never opened them in paper form.
The Palm eBook reader works for me. I can read on break at work, and I've even read the Palm in bed. I love my paper books. They're one of the few things I'm dedicated to. I'd never give them up. But I think if you're a true reader, the format isn't a barrier to enjoying the read.
I've been wanting to build a custom case but I run into the problem of having the PCI cards standing on the motherboard. Does anyone know where I can get cables that would let me relocate the cards? Or if they exist?