Just being included would make it open to security problems. Someday a vulnerability might let a sight activate it using JavaScript, for example.
I'm a minimalist. If I'm not going to ever use it, I'd rather it not be on the computer at all, especially if it's a potential privacy issue.
And we all know that your average Firefox user will always be going to mozilla for their builds. I doubt a fork that removes this component would gain much traction.
- Listen to your end users. They're the reason you're writing the software. Even when they ask for something stupid, be sure to listen to their needs.
- Listen to other smart developers. Find the smartest experienced guy in your new team, or other similar teams, and pick up tips and feedback. There is a LOT that can easily be learned from other smart people's experiences. Ask questions, but don't be annoying. Following a few bloggers in your field can be helpful if you find the right ones, but an experienced person on your own team would be best.
- Read up on general best practices. Indent your code consistently, write comments, name variables and functions well, etc.
- Think about your code long term. Code is rarely used just once and never looked at again. Write it so it should last and be relatively easy for you to pick up a year later or for someone else to take over.
- Don't box yourself into one line of thinking. If you become religiously attached to one particular language, for example, you'll eventually stagnate. Learn the best traits of a variety of languages and systems. It'll make you a better all-around programmer.
I didn't say the disk was full. I just didn't understand why it would require an external HD for distribution. But thanks for so politely explaining it's a "gift".
The last thing I ever got and installed from MS was Visual Studio.NET 2003, which came on 16 CDs. So I wouldn't be surprised at any level of bloat they hand out to developers.
Until Microsoft ends support for XP and a new version of Windows is required to ever get anything patched (still years away, but businesses must prepare).
If they require an external HD to hand this thing out it better contain a boatload of documentation or developer tools. I've never seen one of these, so can someone tell us what MS usually hands out in a pre-beta for developers that takes up so many bits?
In our small business IP telephony is handled with DHCP. All calls get routed through an asterisk server. So we only need one static IP address for the whole phone system. We need asterisk as a PBX anyway, so it's no extra fuss.
Education is definitely not enough because people just don't care. They want to do what they want to do and the computer should magically understand that and play along. There's little respect for the complexity of general purpose computers and any possible learning curve needed to use them properly.
My wife has occasionally complained that her computer was acting "strange". After hearing the symptoms I've often asked, "Did any messages appear?". "Yes." "Well what did it say?" "I don't know. I just clicked OK." She simply doesn't care enough to deal with an issue when she's trying to browse a web site or send an email.
My favorite was the time she complained my laptop must be broken because it turned itself off. I got nervous thinking it was broken. I asked if a message had popped up before it turned off. She said no, then thought about it and remembered something popped up a few minutes earlier. She couldn't remember what it said. I told her it said to plug it in or it would turn itself off. Her response: "Oops".
Again, why would I want to do all these things for a computer used for maybe two hours per month? I'd rather not change anything and complain that the default Vista configuration sucks. After all, that was the point of the conversation.
Since it's a test machine, it's going to have the OS re-installed periodically, further wasting my time if I were to reconfigure it.
And no, I also test with IE7 on XP and it's not exactly the same. File associations, for example, are handled by the OS, so different messages for downloads may or may not appear on each OS.
Most of the non-security message windows I constantly see are related to IE7, so I guess I can't blame just Vista for those, but they are tightly related. Trying to download and view certain types of files or debugging JavaScript is just a pop-up window nightmare.
Fortunately I don't need to use Vista often enough where it's worth my time to tweak the interface.
GoDaddy's email service is horrible. It's ridiculously slow. Besides, you're lucky if you can order it before having seizures caused by their web site.
I've had clients use Fusemail with positive results.
I only need to use Vista for a little testing every few weeks. I can't use it for 5 minutes without wanting to throw the computer out of my 7th floor window. The interface is very inconsistent. It's also constantly popping up message windows (not just the security Allow/Deny). The mouse pointer doesn't always indicate the system is busy when it's doing something, so I often think it's not responding to my clicks, but I can never tell. Although it's purely a matter of taste, I hate the translucent windows. They're very distracting.
I would never touch Vista if I didn't have to use it occasionally for testing.
There are other kinds of wikipedia branches. At DocForge we've branched many programming related wikipedia articles and made revisions. But they're not required to stand up to wikipedia's rules of being encyclopedic, fully referenced, or being neutral point of view. So it wouldn't be appropriate for most edits to also go back into wikipedia.
The RFID chip in my new bank card, which I'm not happy about, can only be read by the scanner if I hold it very close (about an inch or less). So how far away could a really powerful scanner be to still pick up the RFID information? Wouldn't it still have to be pretty close?
Why not just use Oracle databases for everything? Why replicate to MySQL? Doesn't that make sys admin work harder? The only reason I could imagine is licensing costs, but is there any other reason?
Excellent points. In my experience it's most common to refactor the data or only use a subset when synchronizing disparate databases. So I expect to build a small custom data migration app when dealing with this. But your point is taken.
Definitely. After reading the blog post it just sounds like an extra layer of software that's able to replicate across different brands of database. Since most people don't want to maintain multiple database brands the only advantage I can see is in migration.
This doesn't sound all that innovative or even very useful.
Slashdot Mirror
Just being included would make it open to security problems. Someday a vulnerability might let a sight activate it using JavaScript, for example.
I'm a minimalist. If I'm not going to ever use it, I'd rather it not be on the computer at all, especially if it's a potential privacy issue.
And we all know that your average Firefox user will always be going to mozilla for their builds. I doubt a fork that removes this component would gain much traction.
Except the summary states "the location-tracking technology... will be built into the forthcoming Firefox 3.1."
I'd much rather this remain a separately downloadable add-on.
BFG 9000 FTW!
This is the pre-announcement to announce an announcement. You'll have to wait for the actual announcement to find out what the hell it is.
I tend to think of /. as Taco's blog instead of a trusted IT news source. That explains just about everything.
- Listen to your end users. They're the reason you're writing the software. Even when they ask for something stupid, be sure to listen to their needs.
- Listen to other smart developers. Find the smartest experienced guy in your new team, or other similar teams, and pick up tips and feedback. There is a LOT that can easily be learned from other smart people's experiences. Ask questions, but don't be annoying. Following a few bloggers in your field can be helpful if you find the right ones, but an experienced person on your own team would be best.
- Read up on general best practices. Indent your code consistently, write comments, name variables and functions well, etc.
- Think about your code long term. Code is rarely used just once and never looked at again. Write it so it should last and be relatively easy for you to pick up a year later or for someone else to take over.
- Don't box yourself into one line of thinking. If you become religiously attached to one particular language, for example, you'll eventually stagnate. Learn the best traits of a variety of languages and systems. It'll make you a better all-around programmer.
I didn't say the disk was full. I just didn't understand why it would require an external HD for distribution. But thanks for so politely explaining it's a "gift".
The last thing I ever got and installed from MS was Visual Studio .NET 2003, which came on 16 CDs. So I wouldn't be surprised at any level of bloat they hand out to developers.
Until Microsoft ends support for XP and a new version of Windows is required to ever get anything patched (still years away, but businesses must prepare).
I see it as Win-Win.
Isn't it more of a Mac-Mac?
(I'm so sorry, but I couldn't resist.)
If they require an external HD to hand this thing out it better contain a boatload of documentation or developer tools. I've never seen one of these, so can someone tell us what MS usually hands out in a pre-beta for developers that takes up so many bits?
In our small business IP telephony is handled with DHCP. All calls get routed through an asterisk server. So we only need one static IP address for the whole phone system. We need asterisk as a PBX anyway, so it's no extra fuss.
Education is definitely not enough because people just don't care. They want to do what they want to do and the computer should magically understand that and play along. There's little respect for the complexity of general purpose computers and any possible learning curve needed to use them properly.
My wife has occasionally complained that her computer was acting "strange". After hearing the symptoms I've often asked, "Did any messages appear?". "Yes." "Well what did it say?" "I don't know. I just clicked OK." She simply doesn't care enough to deal with an issue when she's trying to browse a web site or send an email.
My favorite was the time she complained my laptop must be broken because it turned itself off. I got nervous thinking it was broken. I asked if a message had popped up before it turned off. She said no, then thought about it and remembered something popped up a few minutes earlier. She couldn't remember what it said. I told her it said to plug it in or it would turn itself off. Her response: "Oops".
Again, why would I want to do all these things for a computer used for maybe two hours per month? I'd rather not change anything and complain that the default Vista configuration sucks. After all, that was the point of the conversation.
Since it's a test machine, it's going to have the OS re-installed periodically, further wasting my time if I were to reconfigure it.
And no, I also test with IE7 on XP and it's not exactly the same. File associations, for example, are handled by the OS, so different messages for downloads may or may not appear on each OS.
Most of the non-security message windows I constantly see are related to IE7, so I guess I can't blame just Vista for those, but they are tightly related. Trying to download and view certain types of files or debugging JavaScript is just a pop-up window nightmare.
Fortunately I don't need to use Vista often enough where it's worth my time to tweak the interface.
GoDaddy's email service is horrible. It's ridiculously slow. Besides, you're lucky if you can order it before having seizures caused by their web site.
I've had clients use Fusemail with positive results.
I only need to use Vista for a little testing every few weeks. I can't use it for 5 minutes without wanting to throw the computer out of my 7th floor window. The interface is very inconsistent. It's also constantly popping up message windows (not just the security Allow/Deny). The mouse pointer doesn't always indicate the system is busy when it's doing something, so I often think it's not responding to my clicks, but I can never tell. Although it's purely a matter of taste, I hate the translucent windows. They're very distracting.
I would never touch Vista if I didn't have to use it occasionally for testing.
That reminded me of a funny Married with Children episode. Oh, Al...
There are other kinds of wikipedia branches. At DocForge we've branched many programming related wikipedia articles and made revisions. But they're not required to stand up to wikipedia's rules of being encyclopedic, fully referenced, or being neutral point of view. So it wouldn't be appropriate for most edits to also go back into wikipedia.
The cop (also riding a bike) could put a red light on his helmet and ring his bicycle bell as a siren... *ching ching* *ching ching*
Very intimidating...
And where would he put the suspect after he's caught, in the basket?
The RFID chip in my new bank card, which I'm not happy about, can only be read by the scanner if I hold it very close (about an inch or less). So how far away could a really powerful scanner be to still pick up the RFID information? Wouldn't it still have to be pretty close?
Score: -1 Pedantic
Why not just use Oracle databases for everything? Why replicate to MySQL? Doesn't that make sys admin work harder? The only reason I could imagine is licensing costs, but is there any other reason?
Excellent points. In my experience it's most common to refactor the data or only use a subset when synchronizing disparate databases. So I expect to build a small custom data migration app when dealing with this. But your point is taken.
Definitely. After reading the blog post it just sounds like an extra layer of software that's able to replicate across different brands of database. Since most people don't want to maintain multiple database brands the only advantage I can see is in migration.
This doesn't sound all that innovative or even very useful.
Soul? Come on, CaptainPatent, there is no such thing as a soul. It's just something they made up to scare kids, like the boogeyman or Michael Jackson.