me: "i just created a new 'horoscope by phone' startup, and it's really popular! woohoo!"
at&t: "hey, we've noticed a lot of people are calling your new company. it would be a shame if 20% of your calls were to drop. would you like to pay us to not drop them?"
me: "WTF? your customers are calling me! THEY paid YOU already for their phone service! you can't just threaten me, that's extortion and a violation of the common carrier law!"
at&t: "oh yeah, nevermind. we'll wait until you start a website..."
what libraries are you talking about? the kernel has kept binary compatibility with all programs virtually since it's inception. X11, GTK and KDE programs all run with very high levels of binary compatibility. on the rare instances they are changes, (say gtk2 to gtk3) it's a clear cutover and all ditros ship with both so all programs keep running.
what i believe you're referring to are the *internal* kernel ABIs. yes, this is a PITA for people writing drivers for video cards. but come on: that's not what you (nor i, nor 99.44% of the people here) do. more than a decade i've programmed on linux (GUIs, server-side, you name it). it all runs in userspace and code i wrote (and compiled) a decade ago still runs just fine on a modern kernel.
btw, if anyone needs convincing, type xbill into your "ubuntu software center" search bar. THAT program i fricking old. runs like a champ tho!
ohhhh.... you know, good point. i bet those thousands of independent scientists worldwide who've been studying global warming for decades forgot all about deforestation as a possible cause. it's a good thing concerned citizens with awesome gut instincts like yourself are around to show them the way!:)
well, i do remember gnome 1. it was no panacea. more like "barely usable" and "ugly as sin".
i agree that they {unity/gnome3} uselessly through away years of good UI engineering work. and i understand the need to move to clutter. but moving to a new framework is tough enough - don't try to re-invent the whole desktop paradigm while you're at it.
but what do i know? i'm sure a 4-digiter will swoop in here and save us from our delusions. =P
it's because i do trust the free market i want (good / common-sense) regulation. good regulations makes markets more free, not less. this is why we regulate "not throwing a brick through your competitor's storefront".
likewise, how robust do you think the air-conditioning equipment market would be if you're electric company was free to cap your Carrier-brand AC compressor's electricity usage but leave cap-free their own home-brand compressor? (like how netflix usage is included in your data cap but at&t's u-verse movie streaming is cap-free...)
i don't think you know what "isn't much more than" means. clue: it includes "a little more", as in "packt is a little more than a vanity press (but not much)".
one of their recruiters approached me last year to write a book on numpy. which was curious to me since while i've used it (and posted some very minor public code using it), i'm not a contributor, nor involved in the community in any way.
some googling led to some fairly consistent stories: very little editing work very low sales (rep told me 1000 copies would be considered successful for a sequel) don't expect more than your initial front (~$3500, which isn't even a front; they pay it out over the different chapters you submit) if they can they get multiple authors writing in the same category at the same time (which means you're basically competing against your own publisher)
needless to say: didn't want to sign my name to anything like that...
have you ever met a software engineering person who writes actual code? we had a whole software engineering phd program where i went to grad school and most of them couldn't open a socket when needed. (literally - we shared classes with them) nor have i met them on the job. (over a decade of full-time work at this point)
i personally believe there is no right way to write software, anymore than there is a right way to write a novel. you just have a lot of wrong ways to use as obstacle avoidance, and some "worked for me" suggestions that you have to evaluate for your current project.
i assume you have a skill in something. let's call it skill X. as an expert in skill X, you presumably have a job employing skill X that takes some non-trivial percentage of your waking hours every week. and furthermore you also presumably dedicate the remaining non-work hours to some combination of hobbies, personal life, family, etc.
now, are you, as an expert in X, willing to sacrifice a all (or at least a significant portion) of your non-work waking hours reading slashdot comments, fark, random blog entries, etc. in the hopes of by chance running into a proof of faster-than-light travel? despite the minentired-bogglingly overwhelming odds it'll mean you'll spend your every waking non-work hour in vain?
it doesn't matter what the second number is. sans the moon and possibly mars, virtually everywhere in the universe is inaccessible by man at any price.
it makes no sense to send people into space... until we know of someplace we can permanently stay.
robots are faster, more accurate, more durable, can stay out there virtually indefinitely, and are 3-20 orders of magnitude cheaper.
from a scientific perspective, low-earth-orbit (the only place we're sending people) just isn't that interesting. virtually all space-related scientific data comes from unmanned probes and robots.
until we're talking about settling another planet/moon, people in space are just tourists. so why is the government funding it?
a different article i read on the same device claimed the inventor discovered the cows actually produce considerably less methane when using this device. which makes sense, as the constant movement would increase the efficiency of their digestive track, which means less undigested food in the bowels, which means less food for the methane-producing bacteria in their colon.
apply for the google summer of code project. looks great on the resume.
also, do virtually anything public programming related. write a small open source utility. or a new feature in an existing open source app. or a free app for a cell phone. (100k downloads isn't that hard, and looks good to business folk)
i've been on the hiring side of fresh meat devs several times now. literally anything that shows you can code in a reasonable, organized fashion will put you at the top of the list.
btw, i hope the html link reference was a joke. =P
i don't know the specifics of spacex's tech, financials or crookism. but if i owned a company that in 2007 had planned a 2009 IPO, i probably would have postponed it regardless of how awesome/straight-forward my company was. i don't know if you remember, but we had a slight stock market hiccup 'round then. =P
Imagine running a restaurant where 40% of the people who came and ate didn't pay. In a way, that's what ad blocking is doing to us.
I am not making an argument that blocking ads is a form of stealing, or is immoral, or unethical, [...]
really. because when you compare ad blocking to stealing food at a restaurant, it seems that you are making the argument that blocking ads is a form of stealing, is immoral, and unethical.
Slashdot Mirror
me: "i just created a new 'horoscope by phone' startup, and it's really popular! woohoo!"
at&t: "hey, we've noticed a lot of people are calling your new company. it would be a shame if 20% of your calls were to drop. would you like to pay us to not drop them?"
me: "WTF? your customers are calling me! THEY paid YOU already for their phone service! you can't just threaten me, that's extortion and a violation of the common carrier law!"
at&t: "oh yeah, nevermind. we'll wait until you start a website..."
That's just silly. I've worked with many math majors holding interesting non-teaching jobs.
in your pi hole? =P
what libraries are you talking about? the kernel has kept binary compatibility with all programs virtually since it's inception. X11, GTK and KDE programs all run with very high levels of binary compatibility. on the rare instances they are changes, (say gtk2 to gtk3) it's a clear cutover and all ditros ship with both so all programs keep running.
what i believe you're referring to are the *internal* kernel ABIs. yes, this is a PITA for people writing drivers for video cards. but come on: that's not what you (nor i, nor 99.44% of the people here) do. more than a decade i've programmed on linux (GUIs, server-side, you name it). it all runs in userspace and code i wrote (and compiled) a decade ago still runs just fine on a modern kernel.
btw, if anyone needs convincing, type xbill into your "ubuntu software center" search bar. THAT program i fricking old. runs like a champ tho!
ohhhh.... you know, good point. i bet those thousands of independent scientists worldwide who've been studying global warming for decades forgot all about deforestation as a possible cause. it's a good thing concerned citizens with awesome gut instincts like yourself are around to show them the way! :)
pffft. someone who was way to eager to give up his email address to some random web site in 1998. =P
well, i do remember gnome 1. it was no panacea.
more like "barely usable" and "ugly as sin".
i agree that they {unity/gnome3} uselessly through away years of good UI engineering work. and i understand the need to move to clutter. but moving to a new framework is tough enough - don't try to re-invent the whole desktop paradigm while you're at it.
but what do i know? i'm sure a 4-digiter will swoop in here and save us from our delusions. =P
it's because i do trust the free market i want (good / common-sense) regulation. good regulations makes markets more free, not less. this is why we regulate "not throwing a brick through your competitor's storefront".
likewise, how robust do you think the air-conditioning equipment market would be if you're electric company was free to cap your Carrier-brand AC compressor's electricity usage but leave cap-free their own home-brand compressor? (like how netflix usage is included in your data cap but at&t's u-verse movie streaming is cap-free...)
i don't think you know what "isn't much more than" means.
clue: it includes "a little more", as in "packt is a little more than a vanity press (but not much)".
=P
one of their recruiters approached me last year to write a book on numpy. which was curious to me since while i've used it (and posted some very minor public code using it), i'm not a contributor, nor involved in the community in any way.
some googling led to some fairly consistent stories:
very little editing work
very low sales (rep told me 1000 copies would be considered successful for a sequel)
don't expect more than your initial front (~$3500, which isn't even a front; they pay it out over the different chapters you submit)
if they can they get multiple authors writing in the same category at the same time (which means you're basically competing against your own publisher)
needless to say: didn't want to sign my name to anything like that...
hell yea!
(Note: you can't motivate a corpse into creating additional works.)
but you can motivate a person who wants to create today and doesn't expect to be a corpse tomorrow.
here's a pointer: don't use javascript. =P
i don't know those specific tools, but it sounds like your solution to poor commenting is to write the same code twice in two different languages. =P
have you ever met a software engineering person who writes actual code? we had a whole software engineering phd program where i went to grad school and most of them couldn't open a socket when needed. (literally - we shared classes with them) nor have i met them on the job. (over a decade of full-time work at this point)
i personally believe there is no right way to write software, anymore than there is a right way to write a novel. you just have a lot of wrong ways to use as obstacle avoidance, and some "worked for me" suggestions that you have to evaluate for your current project.
i assume you have a skill in something. let's call it skill X. as an expert in skill X, you presumably have a job employing skill X that takes some non-trivial percentage of your waking hours every week. and furthermore you also presumably dedicate the remaining non-work hours to some combination of hobbies, personal life, family, etc.
now, are you, as an expert in X, willing to sacrifice a all (or at least a significant portion) of your non-work waking hours reading slashdot comments, fark, random blog entries, etc. in the hopes of by chance running into a proof of faster-than-light travel? despite the minentired-bogglingly overwhelming odds it'll mean you'll spend your every waking non-work hour in vain?
no?
cry baby.
sailing vessels cannot go faster than the wind when sailing directly downwind.
it doesn't matter what the second number is. sans the moon and possibly mars, virtually everywhere in the universe is inaccessible by man at any price.
it makes no sense to send people into space... until we know of someplace we can permanently stay.
robots are faster, more accurate, more durable, can stay out there virtually indefinitely, and are 3-20 orders of magnitude cheaper.
from a scientific perspective, low-earth-orbit (the only place we're sending people) just isn't that interesting. virtually all space-related scientific data comes from unmanned probes and robots.
until we're talking about settling another planet/moon, people in space are just tourists. so why is the government funding it?
actually it only removes "http://". if you're on a secure site it still displays the "https://".
but i still agree it's a bad idea. :)
"RADPU-BE" sounds pretty decent to me!!! =P
a different article i read on the same device claimed the inventor discovered the cows actually produce considerably less methane when using this device. which makes sense, as the constant movement would increase the efficiency of their digestive track, which means less undigested food in the bowels, which means less food for the methane-producing bacteria in their colon.
apply for the google summer of code project. looks great on the resume.
also, do virtually anything public programming related. write a small open source utility. or a new feature in an existing open source app. or a free app for a cell phone. (100k downloads isn't that hard, and looks good to business folk)
i've been on the hiring side of fresh meat devs several times now. literally anything that shows you can code in a reasonable, organized fashion will put you at the top of the list.
btw, i hope the html link reference was a joke. =P
I found one article from Dec 2007 stating they might IPO in the next two years, aka Dec 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0344600420071204 So, wheres the IPO?
i don't know the specifics of spacex's tech, financials or crookism. but if i owned a company that in 2007 had planned a 2009 IPO, i probably would have postponed it regardless of how awesome/straight-forward my company was. i don't know if you remember, but we had a slight stock market hiccup 'round then. =P
Imagine running a restaurant where 40% of the people who came and ate didn't pay. In a way, that's what ad blocking is doing to us.
I am not making an argument that blocking ads is a form of stealing, or is immoral, or unethical, [...]
really. because when you compare ad blocking to stealing food at a restaurant, it seems that you are making the argument that blocking ads is a form of stealing, is immoral, and unethical.