... entirely. Mass hysteria has effects that can be bizarr and creepy to the utmost extent. And as far as we know, nobody is fully immune to it. For one, mass hysteria does spread similar to a disease. Because you need to meet people who have fallen prone to the hysteria for it to spread. Or you need to be primed by some detailed description of it in an environment that emphasises the fact that the effects have a "real" cause.
That scientist find "alterations in brain tissue" could be simply because they were looking for them.
Note: I'm not ruling out some sort of weapon, but right now mass hysteria seems more plausible to me. The story has all the ingredients.
A source claims Thomas de Maizière would like to have backdoors in popular apps. That doesn't mean he'll get them or, as a matter of fact, that the Bundestag will pass a law to make those mandatory. Since the Third Reich Germany has been, shall I say, a tad sensitive on the invulnerability of privacy in mail and telecommunications. I doubt he'd get it through the Bundestag let alone past supreme court.
It's just a German gouvernment official probing the waters machiavelli style. Just like in the US. No news here. Move along.
Before you guys through a fit: Yes, I was deeply into Legos myself and built many a adventurous contraption with Lego Technik (whatever the U.S. name of that is).
However, developmental theory, especially in non-standard education systems, has it that the structure of Lego actually limits thinking outside or certain constraints and this is considered harmful for brain development below a certain age. No surprise here - Lego has strict limitations on order to be as "flexible" as it is.
I'd go so far as to say to much Lego and not enough twigs, dirt, stones and trees emphasises single-mindedness and limits proficiency in social interaction. There are some minute aspects of my behavior and social standards that I can trace directly back to me spending hours and days with nothing but Lego and too little in nature. My affinity for IT may also have to do with this particular aspect of my childhood.
The way we socially interact is very strongly linked to how we played and were able to play as a child. Brain research is unanimous on this....
One of the best decisions of my youth was to trade in my C64 for a racing bike and start climbing as a major pastime. And these days forcing myself away from the keyboard and into social interaction with non-computer people has, ironically, greatly advanced my IT career. And still is.
Bottom line: Lego and other highly "sophisticated" toys may be more harmful than you think and limit an individuals capabilities way later in life.
The PHP crew doesn't hesitate for a second to add in a feature that's useful. PHP gets the job done and that's why it's still holding it's ground even after each and every rails and node fad that comes along.
Facebook is a service that exists solely because computer experts (us) have been to lazy about finally replacing Usenet and E-Mail with something that isn't an anachronistic piece of shite protocol & service. Do that and Facebook will go away. Mark Zuckerberg said it himself: He wouldn't want Facebook to be cool, he would want it to be ubiquitous. Like electricity or tap water. Just about the exact opposite of innovation, once it's established.
Anyone can see that Facebook as something like that isn't all that good. It's just notably better than E-Mail (no news here) for the largest part of humanity, I can't blame them. Facebook has actually *less* ads than email. And the once it does have are at least mildly useful to the users. Ponder that for a moment.
Snapchat crashed and burned because there is a cheaper more universal alternative that is orders of magnitude better. It's this thing called "websites" (remember that Snapchat wanted to make money replacing those), driven by an open standards group that these days to the most extent play ball with each other and actually *do* innovate (CSS Grid and Web Assembly - finally). Snapchat is never going to replace that without redoing the entire way the web works.
Google is a search engine, and a very good one. They actually innovate and have computing power that is unmatched by anyone else. They also have a measurable headstart in AI. And they've built the Facebook of operating systems, Chrome OS / Android. OS as a service. And cleverly implemented. Get all for free, we just get to watch over you.... That is creepy, but it *is* innovative.
I presume Google will get into trouble once we have open source AI projects such as Open AI gain traction on easily available hardware that can run it at the users discretion. Implement the algorithms and spread it on FOSS clients and you can reduce Googles influence significantly. Firefox just vaulted back on to the stage and could be a facilitator of something like this a few years further down the road. Have enough context/AI driven popups wearing on your nerves and eventually someone will get back to dusting off some FOSS mobile OS. Long story short: Google will have to innovate in one way or the other on a regular basis to uphold it's value proposition. And they do. Searh engine algorythms updated regularly, Android, Chrome, Chrome OS, Cloud Computing, AI as a service, cheap feasible VR,... pretty innovative if you ask me. I'm still hooked anyway.... Though I did stear clear from Chrome OS after a short tryout.
That's doesn't mean you're a wuss if you didn't go to College. It's only more likely that you *aren't* a wuss if you did go to College and got a degree that actually means something, i.e. STEM.
This is quite simply put, but has solid truth to it. A degree is only a small piece of the mosaic that is your career, but a significant one that can mean quite the difference.
Looking at how LiMux was botched one has to stand in awe and amazement over the sheer incompetence with which the project was driven against the wall. I'd love to wrap those responsible into barbed wire and shoot them into the sun. That would be a gain for humanity.
Meanwhile Schwaebisch Hall has done the transition to Linux just fine. And without all the press and drumming.
... the last decades of "development" (decay?) in the US. I'm not really surprised. These days I wouldn't touch college with a ten-foot pole if I were living in the US. You're in debt for life, academic job chances and their stability are dwindling and as a heterosexual male you run the risk of being burned at the stake in an instant for being too interested in the ladies.
Here in Germany however it's an entirely different game.
I just enrolled in a BsC programm called Media CompSci. The university is free, the programm is awesome, the campus is exeptionally well put together (they just moved to a brand new campus), services are excellent and on top of that I actually get to *save* money, because semster fees get you a student ID / status that comes with many benefits, including free public transport throughout the state. On the plus side the ladies quota in the CompScis is up and since my faculty has "media" in it's name we can't complain anyway. I get to flirt with girls less than half my age - very nice:-). And if I want I can walk 50 meters to the other faculty buliding and start my own extra MBA programm at no extra cost. Or whatever else I'm interested in.
Bottom line: That young USias (especially males) are steering clear of universities is no big surprise to anyone observing what has been happening lately. I totally get it.
... Linus doesn't mince words when it comes to pointing out bad software development.
As usual, he's right.
And before you object, think for a moment if it could actually be the case that he knows what he is talking about and may even be a better programmer than you. And that your should maybe listen to what he has to say.
IMHO the internet always was second to an improved Fidonet or something similar. Considering the internet "free" always seemed a little naive. It's 2 decades ago that commercial online services controlled access to the web, you had to be always online, it was hideously expensive and slow and E-Mail has always been a shitty non-private service, as has the usenet.
These days Google and Facebook have taken over the position of AOL and Compuserve for a larger part of the population. Plus we all now that three-letter agencies are observing the internet in its entireity. Since Snowden this is no news.
What I do find scary about china is not their control of the internet, but how it shows how control of the internet expands into society. That's the real deal, if you will. They've basically got Brave New World + 1984 going, big time. It's all out cyberpunk where we are headed for and the China you described is one part of the puzzle, that much is true.
PM is just like anything else - it can be done shitty and it can be done well. And just like with anything else the shitty/useful ratio is roughly 80/20. I've encountered my share of both types.
However, I can imagine that with a proper development pipeline and a professional small team, PMing is only required in very small doses at specific points in time. Set up a modern toolchain and everybody on the team will do a bit of everything anyway. As a Scrum Master on one larger team I did tooling on the side. My PM was testing and helping assembling assets (we were buliding a game). We had a great crew and Scrum and PMing and such was only required roughly 30% of the time.
I wouldn't shun PMing entirely though.
For instance, budgeting and corporate politics needs a dedicated person to deal with - that's classic PM territory. A good PM can be worth his/her weight in gold in these areas.
So no, I'm not pissing all over PMs just yet. And you shouldn't either.
I think it's a very good thing that we are decommissioning nuclear fission and leading the way in doing that, but the burning of coal needs to stop too. Given, Germany has the most advanced coal reactors too, some of which produce little to no CO2 and filter nearly all emissions, but they still basically are steam age technology and need to go.
It's because of these that Germany is slacking in the climate saving department, despite being an adamant advocate of it.
This is a regular subject in German news and I hope that soon we'll finally see some regulations and decommissioning of coal plants.
... always mess things up as soon as they get easy.
Web assembly has the advantage of being something non-trivial. I'm glad it's finally here. We will soon get back to where we were with Flash, in a good way.
Technology wise HTML is ancient and can't offer what today's web wants and needs. JS, Web components and now web assembly will do 90% of the trick.
That you can't open links with regular HTML is because some idiot didn't know what he was doing and probably got his hand on some visual web composer or some other shitty gadget to build websites.
Honestly, I'd rather have it that way than the other way around, with no Turing complete tech in the client at all. Idiots will always screw up. Just don't visit those sites and let then know why, that can go a good while in improving the web.
LiMux was handled by idiots, plain and simple. Current decisions were brought on by people who know zilch about computers and couldn't tell a client from a server if their life depended on it. Breathtakingly dumb people with a stupid political and personal agenda, most certainly bribed by MS lobbyists. If you want to know how Projects like these get f*cked up by idiots that only know Windows and have zero concept of computers, look no further than the LiMux desaster.
Meanwhile SchwÃbisch Hall is doing just fine with their Linux migration.
Shit like this pisses me off big time, can't help it.
For current day computers I'd give the current MacBooks a try. I've had good experiences with the new Apple keyboards, but some people don't like them at all so YMMV.
If you can get your hands on an older refurbished ThinkPad with the classic keyboard, that might be an option aswell. I just bought one of the last with the classic keyboard and don't regret it the slightest.
Everyone with 2+ braincells to rub together prefers voting with paper. Every computer expert on the entire planet says computer driven voting is generally a notably stupid idea. It's only dimwits and people who want power and have a solid interest in controlling elections that want computers as a middle man for votes.
Arial is a large step down. A sad and sorry Helvetica rippoff, and it shows at every corner. Designers and Typographists never use it. And when they are forced to, they feel dirty afterwards. I'm not exaggerating.
This should tell you all you need to know about whether the "creative director of brand experience and design" adds any value to the company.
I wouldn't really look to IBM to get an answer to that although IBM is and has been doing an OK job in that regard.... You will get a way more clear answer to that question if you look to Apple.
Slashdot Mirror
... entirely. Mass hysteria has effects that can be bizarr and creepy to the utmost extent. And as far as we know, nobody is fully immune to it. For one, mass hysteria does spread similar to a disease. Because you need to meet people who have fallen prone to the hysteria for it to spread. Or you need to be primed by some detailed description of it in an environment that emphasises the fact that the effects have a "real" cause.
That scientist find "alterations in brain tissue" could be simply because they were looking for them.
Note: I'm not ruling out some sort of weapon, but right now mass hysteria seems more plausible to me. The story has all the ingredients.
... I was to busy laughing. ROTFL.
Serisously, this is prank, isn't it?
A source claims Thomas de Maizière would like to have backdoors in popular apps. That doesn't mean he'll get them or, as a matter of fact, that the Bundestag will pass a law to make those mandatory. Since the Third Reich Germany has been, shall I say, a tad sensitive on the invulnerability of privacy in mail and telecommunications. I doubt he'd get it through the Bundestag let alone past supreme court.
It's just a German gouvernment official probing the waters machiavelli style. Just like in the US. No news here. Move along.
Before you guys through a fit: Yes, I was deeply into Legos myself and built many a adventurous contraption with Lego Technik (whatever the U.S. name of that is).
However, developmental theory, especially in non-standard education systems, has it that the structure of Lego actually limits thinking outside or certain constraints and this is considered harmful for brain development below a certain age. No surprise here - Lego has strict limitations on order to be as "flexible" as it is.
I'd go so far as to say to much Lego and not enough twigs, dirt, stones and trees emphasises single-mindedness and limits proficiency in social interaction. There are some minute aspects of my behavior and social standards that I can trace directly back to me spending hours and days with nothing but Lego and too little in nature. My affinity for IT may also have to do with this particular aspect of my childhood.
The way we socially interact is very strongly linked to how we played and were able to play as a child. Brain research is unanimous on this. ...
One of the best decisions of my youth was to trade in my C64 for a racing bike and start climbing as a major pastime. And these days forcing myself away from the keyboard and into social interaction with non-computer people has, ironically, greatly advanced my IT career. And still is.
Bottom line: Lego and other highly "sophisticated" toys may be more harmful than you think and limit an individuals capabilities way later in life.
My 2 eurocents.
The PHP crew doesn't hesitate for a second to add in a feature that's useful. PHP gets the job done and that's why it's still holding it's ground even after each and every rails and node fad that comes along.
Facebook is a service that exists solely because computer experts (us) have been to lazy about finally replacing Usenet and E-Mail with something that isn't an anachronistic piece of shite protocol & service. Do that and Facebook will go away. Mark Zuckerberg said it himself: He wouldn't want Facebook to be cool, he would want it to be ubiquitous. Like electricity or tap water. Just about the exact opposite of innovation, once it's established.
Anyone can see that Facebook as something like that isn't all that good. It's just notably better than E-Mail (no news here) for the largest part of humanity, I can't blame them. Facebook has actually *less* ads than email. And the once it does have are at least mildly useful to the users. Ponder that for a moment.
Snapchat crashed and burned because there is a cheaper more universal alternative that is orders of magnitude better. It's this thing called "websites" (remember that Snapchat wanted to make money replacing those), driven by an open standards group that these days to the most extent play ball with each other and actually *do* innovate (CSS Grid and Web Assembly - finally). Snapchat is never going to replace that without redoing the entire way the web works.
Google is a search engine, and a very good one. They actually innovate and have computing power that is unmatched by anyone else. They also have a measurable headstart in AI. And they've built the Facebook of operating systems, Chrome OS / Android. OS as a service. And cleverly implemented. Get all for free, we just get to watch over you. ... That is creepy, but it *is* innovative.
I presume Google will get into trouble once we have open source AI projects such as Open AI gain traction on easily available hardware that can run it at the users discretion. Implement the algorithms and spread it on FOSS clients and you can reduce Googles influence significantly. Firefox just vaulted back on to the stage and could be a facilitator of something like this a few years further down the road. Have enough context/AI driven popups wearing on your nerves and eventually someone will get back to dusting off some FOSS mobile OS. Long story short: Google will have to innovate in one way or the other on a regular basis to uphold it's value proposition. And they do. Searh engine algorythms updated regularly, Android, Chrome, Chrome OS, Cloud Computing, AI as a service, cheap feasible VR, ... pretty innovative if you ask me. I'm still hooked anyway. ... Though I did stear clear from Chrome OS after a short tryout.
My 2 cents.
... is a filter for Wussies.
That's doesn't mean you're a wuss if you didn't go to College. It's only more likely that you *aren't* a wuss if you did go to College and got a degree that actually means something, i.e. STEM.
This is quite simply put, but has solid truth to it. A degree is only a small piece of the mosaic that is your career, but a significant one that can mean quite the difference.
Looking at how LiMux was botched one has to stand in awe and amazement over the sheer incompetence with which the project was driven against the wall. I'd love to wrap those responsible into barbed wire and shoot them into the sun. That would be a gain for humanity.
Meanwhile Schwaebisch Hall has done the transition to Linux just fine. And without all the press and drumming.
in 3,2,1 ...
... the last decades of "development" (decay?) in the US. I'm not really surprised. These days I wouldn't touch college with a ten-foot pole if I were living in the US. You're in debt for life, academic job chances and their stability are dwindling and as a heterosexual male you run the risk of being burned at the stake in an instant for being too interested in the ladies.
Here in Germany however it's an entirely different game.
I just enrolled in a BsC programm called Media CompSci. The university is free, the programm is awesome, the campus is exeptionally well put together (they just moved to a brand new campus), services are excellent and on top of that I actually get to *save* money, because semster fees get you a student ID / status that comes with many benefits, including free public transport throughout the state. On the plus side the ladies quota in the CompScis is up and since my faculty has "media" in it's name we can't complain anyway. I get to flirt with girls less than half my age - very nice :-). And if I want I can walk 50 meters to the other faculty buliding and start my own extra MBA programm at no extra cost. Or whatever else I'm interested in.
Bottom line: That young USias (especially males) are steering clear of universities is no big surprise to anyone observing what has been happening lately. I totally get it.
My 2 eurocents.
Works like a charm.
Other than that, I tend to avoid Wine and also don't really need it these days.
He didn't handle the situation poorly. He actually handled it quite well, despite being burned by a very loud public.
This autism thing he brought up is, of course, a bad move, but I guess he's in duress and not a PR pro. ... He should probably get one.
... Linus doesn't mince words when it comes to pointing out bad software development.
As usual, he's right.
And before you object, think for a moment if it could actually be the case that he knows what he is talking about and may even be a better programmer than you. And that your should maybe listen to what he has to say.
My 2 cents.
IMHO the internet always was second to an improved Fidonet or something similar. Considering the internet "free" always seemed a little naive. It's 2 decades ago that commercial online services controlled access to the web, you had to be always online, it was hideously expensive and slow and E-Mail has always been a shitty non-private service, as has the usenet.
These days Google and Facebook have taken over the position of AOL and Compuserve for a larger part of the population. Plus we all now that three-letter agencies are observing the internet in its entireity. Since Snowden this is no news.
What I do find scary about china is not their control of the internet, but how it shows how control of the internet expands into society. That's the real deal, if you will. They've basically got Brave New World + 1984 going, big time. It's all out cyberpunk where we are headed for and the China you described is one part of the puzzle, that much is true.
My 2 eurocents.
PM is just like anything else - it can be done shitty and it can be done well. And just like with anything else the shitty/useful ratio is roughly 80/20. I've encountered my share of both types.
However, I can imagine that with a proper development pipeline and a professional small team, PMing is only required in very small doses at specific points in time. Set up a modern toolchain and everybody on the team will do a bit of everything anyway. As a Scrum Master on one larger team I did tooling on the side. My PM was testing and helping assembling assets (we were buliding a game). We had a great crew and Scrum and PMing and such was only required roughly 30% of the time.
I wouldn't shun PMing entirely though.
For instance, budgeting and corporate politics needs a dedicated person to deal with - that's classic PM territory. A good PM can be worth his/her weight in gold in these areas.
So no, I'm not pissing all over PMs just yet.
And you shouldn't either.
Truckloads of shitty ones with a few professionaly inbetween?
Sounds plausible. :-)
I think it's a very good thing that we are decommissioning nuclear fission and leading the way in doing that, but the burning of coal needs to stop too. Given, Germany has the most advanced coal reactors too, some of which produce little to no CO2 and filter nearly all emissions, but they still basically are steam age technology and need to go.
It's because of these that Germany is slacking in the climate saving department, despite being an adamant advocate of it.
This is a regular subject in German news and I hope that soon we'll finally see some regulations and decommissioning of coal plants.
My 2 eurocents.
... always mess things up as soon as they get easy.
Web assembly has the advantage of being something non-trivial. I'm glad it's finally here. We will soon get back to where we were with Flash, in a good way.
Technology wise HTML is ancient and can't offer what today's web wants and needs. JS, Web components and now web assembly will do 90% of the trick.
That you can't open links with regular HTML is because some idiot didn't know what he was doing and probably got his hand on some visual web composer or some other shitty gadget to build websites.
Honestly, I'd rather have it that way than the other way around, with no Turing complete tech in the client at all. Idiots will always screw up. Just don't visit those sites and let then know why, that can go a good while in improving the web.
My 2 cents.
LiMux was handled by idiots, plain and simple. Current decisions were brought on by people who know zilch about computers and couldn't tell a client from a server if their life depended on it. Breathtakingly dumb people with a stupid political and personal agenda, most certainly bribed by MS lobbyists. If you want to know how Projects like these get f*cked up by idiots that only know Windows and have zero concept of computers, look no further than the LiMux desaster.
Meanwhile SchwÃbisch Hall is doing just fine with their Linux migration.
Shit like this pisses me off big time, can't help it.
For current day computers I'd give the current MacBooks a try. I've had good experiences with the new Apple keyboards, but some people don't like them at all so YMMV.
If you can get your hands on an older refurbished ThinkPad with the classic keyboard, that might be an option aswell. I just bought one of the last with the classic keyboard and don't regret it the slightest.
Then go ahead and try to fiddle something with those old iPods.
As far as I can tell, a Rasberry Pi and MPD (music player daemon) does the trick faster, easyer and cheaper.
My 2 cents.
Errrm, and your point being?
Everyone with 2+ braincells to rub together prefers voting with paper. Every computer expert on the entire planet says computer driven voting is generally a notably stupid idea. It's only dimwits and people who want power and have a solid interest in controlling elections that want computers as a middle man for votes.
This is news from more than 2 decades ago.
"Predictably Irrational" I'm reading right now.
Arial is a large step down. A sad and sorry Helvetica rippoff, and it shows at every corner. Designers and Typographists never use it. And when they are forced to, they feel dirty afterwards. I'm not exaggerating.
This should tell you all you need to know about whether the "creative director of brand experience and design" adds any value to the company.
I wouldn't really look to IBM to get an answer to that although IBM is and has been doing an OK job in that regard. ...
You will get a way more clear answer to that question if you look to Apple.