Large-scale project management (open-source and non). This is something that gets taught at few if any universities but is, obviously, necessary in the real world. The Mythical Man Month is useful but it hasn't been updated for a while and that applies more to the IBM manager culture than the domain of a few programmers or a distributed Bazaar.
I'd love to see a book that outlines major successes *cough*GNU/Linux & Slashdot*cough*, semi-successes *cough* ? *cough*, and failures. Including interviews, looks at their organizational structure (leutenants, an overmanager, etc.) tools, and life cycles. I'd also love to see some debate on the Multi-language/Single-Language question.
Ignored Aspects
on
Arguing A.I.
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Note: I am an active AI research programmer so my opionons are that of someone committed to the field.
Begin.rant;
The key problem that I have with current AI debate is not that it is case-based but that it is centered on a limited number of cases.
AI is a broad field that encompasses everything from Deep Blue to more esoteric work on "building brains". There are researchers who are attempting to "remake humans", researchers like myself who are studying specific aspects of intelligent behavior, researchers who use AI to model and understand (but not replace) human intelligence, and researchers true to Turing who simply want to make systems that behave intelligently.
Yet, whenever debates about AI come up people seem to invariably center on "major cases" such as Deep Blue, Cycorp, and the spectre of Rossum's Universal Robots. As a result researchers whose sole goal is to understand how humans think are lumped in with people who seek to build armies of slave drones.
I have not read the book in question and this is not intended as a critique of the author in specific. Yet I don't hold out much hope that any single source can encapsulate so vast and multivaried field or that any single argument applies to all of "AI".
End.rant;
Perhaps Sony is trying to prevent that with the PS2.
Sony is a hardware company, their control is the PS2 architecture. That architecture is made more valuable wehn people develop new software for it. As a result they welcome Linux on the PS2 with open arms. (and possibly a bit of marketing) The linux group is using gcc developed by Sony so Sony is happy.
Modders, however touch the hardware itself, and learn from it, possibly passing on the secrets to people who will develop competing systems or emulators. This has the potential to reduce Sony's profits (think IBM and the PC). Sony is probably hammering the modders so hewavily in order to prevent the current state of the PS1 from being repeated.
Actually no, contrary to the general bullshit Comsky does not always advance the idea that America is the centre of all the world's pain and that it is all 'our' fault. What he does point out is that American businesses and the politicians that they control have and still do make many destructive decisions. We the people are not always told the truth about these decisions. Nevertheless when the price is paid, we as soldiers, taxpayers and civillians pay it.
Chomsky is also clear that this is not new nor is it specific to the U.S. He has lambasted Britan, China and the USSR at the same time.
Atone point it was decided that the business world needed a business language, something that managers and any moderately-trained exec could understand. This was supposed to make trained programmers unnecessary.
Didn't really happen did it?
Even in COBOL you need someone who knows what mergesort is and when it is better or worse to use than bubblesort. It is true that more people can program now and so the elitism is gone or going. Nevertheless this doesn't mean that the sky is falling just that the idyl is over.
The average citizen probably hasn't given any thought to municipal IT, nor will they. That's why city council and city bureucracies exist. They have given a lot of thought to their taxes and how they are spent. Tell them that you will be saving the city money making their tax dollars go further, and upgrading the infrastructure at the same time. People like saving money, and it'll make you look like a man of ideas. It's not like your opponent can oppose the idea.
What you do with the saved money is another issue.
Re:You Believe This??
on
The Drone War
·
· Score: 3, Informative
The U.S. had learned that lesson long before Vietnam. Prior to the invasion of Normandy During WWII no American reporters were permitted to photograph U.S. casualties. During the invasion that ban was lifted but the reports were still censored "for security reasons."
During Desert Storm the army worked to hide Iraqi casualties as well as American ones. CNN reports at the time keep relatively quiet on that subject. Probably because most Americans wouldn't have supported that "use of force" if they had been confronted with the killing involved. It's difficult to "keep the moral high ground" when you are killing people.
That the terrorists presented valid ID's when the boarded the airplanes. So while this initiative may help spot fakes it wouldn't have actually 'caught' them.
...That the Act defines "disability" "with respect to an individual," 12102(2), makes clear that Congress intended the existence of a disability to be determined in such a case-by-case manner. See, e.g., Sutton v. United Air Lines, Inc., 527 U.S. 471 , 483. An individualized assessment of the effect of an impairment is particularly necessary when the impairment is one such as carpal tunnel syndrome, in which symptoms vary widely from person to person. Pp. 11--14.
(b) The Sixth Circuit erred in suggesting that, in order to prove a substantial limitation in the major life activity of performing manual tasks, a plaintiff must show that her manual disability involves a "class" of manual activities, and that those activities affect the ability to perform tasks at work...
Strictly speaking the court made no ruling on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. What they asserted was that this woman was not disabled and that the criteria for proving disability which the lower court employed were incorrect.
This does set the bar high for proving disability but the door to employing people in knowingly injurious jobs was already open. You can thank Tom Delay for that when he killed the workplace ergonomics Legislation the Clinton had Passed.
This depends upon the house and your price range but why not use the "waste heat." If you can setup the hvac to vent from the outside into that room and then from there into the rest of the house you can help to keep the whole place warm. Depending upon the setup this may make an economical dent in the heating bills.
If that doesn't work, make the room into a sauna;)
As I understand it the Rear makes a lot of difference. It's like the rank distinction between a General and Four Star General. Admirals as far as I understand command bases and carrier groups. Rear Admirals tell them what to do with those bases and carrier groups.
She didn't actually win the Turing Award. They made the Grace Murray Hopper Award in 1971. On the whole I think I'd prefer having an award in my name too.
When she retired in 1986 at the age of 79 she was the oldest commissioned navy officer onactive duty. The retiement ceremony was held on the U.S.S Constitution which is also still on active duty.
I guess any woman tough enough to do what they did when they did (not sit at home) doesn't like to quit.
In his recent testimony before Congress John Ascroft asserted that they have no oversight powers on him or the Justice department. He followed up by pointing out that he reported to the executive branch alone and asserted that people who raised fears of lost freedoms were "helping the terrorists."
Coupled with theat Bush is currently seeking to regain the fast-track trade negotiation powers that were once bestowed on his predecessor. Such powers would make it only easier for him to craft international DMCA-like agreements that would then change U.S. law without the full involvement of the congress.
My question is, how free is the executive branch in these areas? Are they truly operating without Judicial or Congressional oversight or is it just right now? Can we expect Ascroft to continue with his free reign? Can we expect Bush to craft more international DMCA treaties via the WTO?
It's not like they've discovered flight or built the first boat or the wheel. All they've done is engineered a nice electric scooter. Cool but it seems harly "earth shattering", perhaps "earth nudging."
I once asked a guy from Iraq about this. His country is facing massive starvation, medical problems, and decaying infrasturcture due to the U.N. Sanctions. Sanctions which aren't weakening Saddam any. (see here or here[msword warning])
He personally had no need for a server farm. But he did need a news source. People support the sanctions he feels because the don't know how bad they really are. , but a news source, some way of getting the word out to the public, an Indymedia or a Cryptome. Something to inform the world of what is happening. That alone can make all the difference by motivating others to make changes or even volunteer their time.
I'd suggest looking at one of those sites or starting another if you prefer.
If you'd rather have a job the WHO is advertising for Professional staff (including IT).
This isn't the first time that Apple did this. Back in the early days of Hypercard they shipped a "demo" version on all new macs. You could play stacks but not create them. That is, unless you were capable of typing the word "magic" at which point the demo would "magically" transform itself into the full thing.
Apple never took any legal action to my knowledge. This was well before the "look and feel" days so they were still innocent, sweet and too wealthy to care.
You make a point but I think in your first paragraph you are missing the main point of the Article. The Saudi Government, like the Chinese does not put the question of censorship ut to majority vote. They did not poll their people and say "Do you want this?" They simply did it and in the process ensured that the people who seem to support it will always be in the majority.
I agree everyone has a right to beleive what they will and the Saudi people have a right to censor what they will. But if people voice an opinion simply because it is all they know and all that they are allowed to say then that isn't choice. If they are told that blocking will occur and told to support it then thay haven't really "asked for it" have they?
Is this even Legal? My understanding of the GPL is that all derivative versions of a GPL'd work must remain GPL'd. Thus preventing people form taking someone else's free work and profiting by it.
According to this the geosynchronous satellite prediction came in an article for "Wireless World" circa 1945. The idea of Satellites preceeeded the article. Clarke's innovation was in predicting one that could center over the earth with a definite period and predicting the benefit (predictable point to point communications) that they would provide. Now the worldwide telecommunications infrastructure, and thus the modern global economy, depends upon them.
To summarize the articles, the idea of something that could hang in a fixed location above the earth is an old one (early indian mythology). However, it was generally considered impossible, impractical etc. Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short (nonficiton) article in which he asserted that geosynchronous satellites would revolutionize communication. Permitting a link between any two points on the globe. Based upon that article people went out and built such satellites. Now the modern international infrasturctre (long distance telecommunications, broadcast networks, etc.), Governments (Spy Satellites, star wars (if its ever built)), and hikers (GPS) all depend upon the technology.
Strictly speaking its not an example of pure science fiction as Clarke's article appeard in a nonfiction publication. But he was a specialist in Science fiction, and what he did was assert the effect such things would have if they existed not how to make them.
In my group we are implementing using a multi-language model currently. We are doing this to combine Ansi C's number crunching with MFC's interfaces and Lisp's Symbol Manipulation. Due to interface and speed requirements this is the only choice.
We have only had one problem associated with this that is at the edges. Past experience has shown that with no documentation on the api's we are stuck unless "the guy who wrote it" is in. But this is true of any project, poor documentation and bad code causes problems. It seems to me that maintainability issues are the same, it's the code not the language(s).
Slashdot Mirror
The willingness to face rejection and embarass someone in front of an international audience of geeks.
So do we all get invited to the wedding?
Large-scale project management (open-source and non). This is something that gets taught at few if any universities but is, obviously, necessary in the real world. The Mythical Man Month is useful but it hasn't been updated for a while and that applies more to the IBM manager culture than the domain of a few programmers or a distributed Bazaar.
I'd love to see a book that outlines major successes *cough*GNU/Linux & Slashdot*cough*, semi-successes *cough* ? *cough*, and failures. Including interviews, looks at their organizational structure (leutenants, an overmanager, etc.) tools, and life cycles. I'd also love to see some debate on the Multi-language/Single-Language question.
Note: I am an active AI research programmer so my opionons are that of someone committed to the field.
Begin.rant;
The key problem that I have with current AI debate is not that it is case-based but that it is centered on a limited number of cases.
AI is a broad field that encompasses everything from Deep Blue to more esoteric work on "building brains". There are researchers who are attempting to "remake humans", researchers like myself who are studying specific aspects of intelligent behavior, researchers who use AI to model and understand (but not replace) human intelligence, and researchers true to Turing who simply want to make systems that behave intelligently.
Yet, whenever debates about AI come up people seem to invariably center on "major cases" such as Deep Blue, Cycorp, and the spectre of Rossum's Universal Robots. As a result researchers whose sole goal is to understand how humans think are lumped in with people who seek to build armies of slave drones.
I have not read the book in question and this is not intended as a critique of the author in specific. Yet I don't hold out much hope that any single source can encapsulate so vast and multivaried field or that any single argument applies to all of "AI".
End.rant;
Perhaps Sony is trying to prevent that with the PS2.
Sony is a hardware company, their control is the PS2 architecture. That architecture is made more valuable wehn people develop new software for it. As a result they welcome Linux on the PS2 with open arms. (and possibly a bit of marketing) The linux group is using gcc developed by Sony so Sony is happy.
Modders, however touch the hardware itself, and learn from it, possibly passing on the secrets to people who will develop competing systems or emulators. This has the potential to reduce Sony's profits (think IBM and the PC). Sony is probably hammering the modders so hewavily in order to prevent the current state of the PS1 from being repeated.
Actually no, contrary to the general bullshit Comsky does not always advance the idea that America is the centre of all the world's pain and that it is all 'our' fault. What he does point out is that American businesses and the politicians that they control have and still do make many destructive decisions. We the people are not always told the truth about these decisions. Nevertheless when the price is paid, we as soldiers, taxpayers and civillians pay it.
Chomsky is also clear that this is not new nor is it specific to the U.S. He has lambasted Britan, China and the USSR at the same time.
Atone point it was decided that the business world needed a business language, something that managers and any moderately-trained exec could understand. This was supposed to make trained programmers unnecessary.
Didn't really happen did it?
Even in COBOL you need someone who knows what mergesort is and when it is better or worse to use than bubblesort. It is true that more people can program now and so the elitism is gone or going. Nevertheless this doesn't mean that the sky is falling just that the idyl is over.
The average citizen probably hasn't given any thought to municipal IT, nor will they. That's why city council and city bureucracies exist. They have given a lot of thought to their taxes and how they are spent. Tell them that you will be saving the city money making their tax dollars go further, and upgrading the infrastructure at the same time. People like saving money, and it'll make you look like a man of ideas. It's not like your opponent can oppose the idea.
What you do with the saved money is another issue.
The U.S. had learned that lesson long before Vietnam. Prior to the invasion of Normandy During WWII no American reporters were permitted to photograph U.S. casualties. During the invasion that ban was lifted but the reports were still censored "for security reasons."
During Desert Storm the army worked to hide Iraqi casualties as well as American ones. CNN reports at the time keep relatively quiet on that subject. Probably because most Americans wouldn't have supported that "use of force" if they had been confronted with the killing involved. It's difficult to "keep the moral high ground" when you are killing people.
That the terrorists presented valid ID's when the boarded the airplanes. So while this initiative may help spot fakes it wouldn't have actually 'caught' them.
(b) The Sixth Circuit erred in suggesting that, in order to prove a substantial limitation in the major life activity of performing manual tasks, a plaintiff must show that her manual disability involves a "class" of manual activities, and that those activities affect the ability to perform tasks at work...
Strictly speaking the court made no ruling on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. What they asserted was that this woman was not disabled and that the criteria for proving disability which the lower court employed were incorrect.
This does set the bar high for proving disability but the door to employing people in knowingly injurious jobs was already open. You can thank Tom Delay for that when he killed the workplace ergonomics Legislation the Clinton had Passed.
This depends upon the house and your price range but why not use the "waste heat." If you can setup the hvac to vent from the outside into that room and then from there into the rest of the house you can help to keep the whole place warm. Depending upon the setup this may make an economical dent in the heating bills.
;)
If that doesn't work, make the room into a sauna
As I understand it the Rear makes a lot of difference. It's like the rank distinction between a General and Four Star General. Admirals as far as I understand command bases and carrier groups. Rear Admirals tell them what to do with those bases and carrier groups.
She didn't actually win the Turing Award. They made the Grace Murray Hopper Award in 1971. On the whole I think I'd prefer having an award in my name too.
Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper.
When she retired in 1986 at the age of 79 she was the oldest commissioned navy officer onactive duty. The retiement ceremony was held on the U.S.S Constitution which is also still on active duty.
I guess any woman tough enough to do what they did when they did (not sit at home) doesn't like to quit.
In his recent testimony before Congress John Ascroft asserted that they have no oversight powers on him or the Justice department. He followed up by pointing out that he reported to the executive branch alone and asserted that people who raised fears of lost freedoms were "helping the terrorists."
Coupled with theat Bush is currently seeking to regain the fast-track trade negotiation powers that were once bestowed on his predecessor. Such powers would make it only easier for him to craft international DMCA-like agreements that would then change U.S. law without the full involvement of the congress.
My question is, how free is the executive branch in these areas? Are they truly operating without Judicial or Congressional oversight or is it just right now? Can we expect Ascroft to continue with his free reign? Can we expect Bush to craft more international DMCA treaties via the WTO?
Irvu.
It's not like they've discovered flight or built the first boat or the wheel. All they've done is engineered a nice electric scooter. Cool but it seems harly "earth shattering", perhaps "earth nudging."
The U.N. is seeking Trained IT people right now.
I once asked a guy from Iraq about this. His country is facing massive starvation, medical problems, and decaying infrasturcture due to the U.N. Sanctions. Sanctions which aren't weakening Saddam any. (see here or here[msword warning])
He personally had no need for a server farm. But he did need a news source. People support the sanctions he feels because the don't know how bad they really are. , but a news source, some way of getting the word out to the public, an Indymedia or a Cryptome. Something to inform the world of what is happening. That alone can make all the difference by motivating others to make changes or even volunteer their time.
I'd suggest looking at one of those sites or starting another if you prefer.
If you'd rather have a job the WHO is advertising for Professional staff (including IT).
This isn't the first time that Apple did this. Back in the early days of Hypercard they shipped a "demo" version on all new macs. You could play stacks but not create them. That is, unless you were capable of typing the word "magic" at which point the demo would "magically" transform itself into the full thing.
Apple never took any legal action to my knowledge. This was well before the "look and feel" days so they were still innocent, sweet and too wealthy to care.
You make a point but I think in your first paragraph you are missing the main point of the Article. The Saudi Government, like the Chinese does not put the question of censorship ut to majority vote. They did not poll their people and say "Do you want this?" They simply did it and in the process ensured that the people who seem to support it will always be in the majority.
I agree everyone has a right to beleive what they will and the Saudi people have a right to censor what they will. But if people voice an opinion simply because it is all they know and all that they are allowed to say then that isn't choice. If they are told that blocking will occur and told to support it then thay haven't really "asked for it" have they?
Is this even Legal? My understanding of the GPL is that all derivative versions of a GPL'd work must remain GPL'd. Thus preventing people form taking someone else's free work and profiting by it.
How can they legally make this shift?
And what does RMS have to say about it?
According to this the geosynchronous satellite prediction came in an article for "Wireless World" circa 1945. The idea of Satellites preceeeded the article. Clarke's innovation was in predicting one that could center over the earth with a definite period and predicting the benefit (predictable point to point communications) that they would provide. Now the worldwide telecommunications infrastructure, and thus the modern global economy, depends upon them.
See here
or here
To summarize the articles, the idea of something that could hang in a fixed location above the earth is an old one (early indian mythology). However, it was generally considered impossible, impractical etc. Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short (nonficiton) article in which he asserted that geosynchronous satellites would revolutionize communication. Permitting a link between any two points on the globe. Based upon that article people went out and built such satellites. Now the modern international infrasturctre (long distance telecommunications, broadcast networks, etc.), Governments (Spy Satellites, star wars (if its ever built)), and hikers (GPS) all depend upon the technology.
Strictly speaking its not an example of pure science fiction as Clarke's article appeard in a nonfiction publication. But he was a specialist in Science fiction, and what he did was assert the effect such things would have if they existed not how to make them.
In my group we are implementing using a multi-language model currently. We are doing this to combine Ansi C's number crunching with MFC's interfaces and Lisp's Symbol Manipulation. Due to interface and speed requirements this is the only choice.
We have only had one problem associated with this that is at the edges. Past experience has shown that with no documentation on the api's we are stuck unless "the guy who wrote it" is in. But this is true of any project, poor documentation and bad code causes problems. It seems to me that maintainability issues are the same, it's the code not the language(s).
I have a feeling that some geeks might rank a date with Linus above a date with a woman. Particularly if those geeks are women.
It's all about the classic sets and Mindstorms.