My Gig currently is with a classic marketing agency. Very nice folks - a breath of fresh air when it comes to my history with agencies - but breathtakingly clueless with IT - as usual in this industry. I'm basically the only IT/dev guy in a shop of 30. Has its ups and downs.... Whatever.
They asked me on board as a webdev, to establish a pipeline and introduce versioning. I'm using Git on a VMed central linux system and SourceTree as client. Our outside SSH port is mapped to that VM, so the the people on a project can commit docs or code on the go.
Sidenote: I wouldn't use anything other than Git, it's just not worth it. Git has won the versioning thing. End of story.... Bazaar might be an alternative, if you need the same click-ui on windows, mac *and* linux, but that is probably a very rare case.
As a client we use SourceTree on both Mac and Windows, so all UIs look more or less the same. No Tortoise, for that exact reason! I show them where to click to see the entire file-tree as in finder or explorer, so nobody is confused and explain the difference between a commit and a push. In a pinch, the windows and mac folks can help each other out if I'm not around, since they’re all using SourceTree. And it keeps this "Versioning" thing nice and secluded. That's also a reason.
I want to get them to use versioning, so I tell them #1 is always fear of using it. I tell them not to worry, it's pratically impossible to break anything (one of the advantages of Git). I tell them to version often and comment their commits, even if it's just smalltalk. The point is getting used to commenting. We don't uses branches, just master. I also tell them to try and logically group commits, but not kill themselves if it goes wrong. It happens - with me aswell. No harm done.
Once everyone is pro in versioning, we might change the branching policy.
As for all the other buttons in SourceTree, I just tell them to ignore them and that they are for later. I do tell them the meaning of "Stash" and how nifty that is when you've forgotten to pull before starting your work, but only those who need and want to know.... As soon as they get a pull conflict, they ususall do want to know, so no problem here.
I've established a naming-standard with ProjectFolderName/git-repo for local clones, so everyone has a space where they can fiddle for the project without needing to inmediately version if they just want to try out a new tool or salvage an older Photoshop template or something. Project docs go into/docs, developer stuff goes into/code (mostly complete wordpress installs or some other thing), DB dumps into/db, graphics, layout, DTP files and videos and other raw material usually goes into/assets, etc.... You get the picture. We're/I'm not to strict with dir-policy and let it grow a little too. No project is like another.
Important: I put my agency behind versioning, because right now its Filename-02122014-final-extra-specialEdit-Peter.doc on a central drive and shit. Especially with the editorial team. Not good. I did a neat presentation and help everyone who comes into versioning to get familiar with the concept. Installing SourceTree, doing a few demo commits, have them do it, show them the red numbers, looking at the history log and file-changes and stuff.
A few months in and the online team is starting to get used to versioning on some projects. Once everyone there is on board we’ll move into other departments. My PM for one large online project is using versioning regularly now, as are the students helping out. That the bosses are behind all this helps.
Sidenote: More than half of the team is ladies, as is my PM, btw.
I tell everyone that they can ask me everything a million times and call me at 2 o’clock in the morning if it’s a versioning problem and they need my advice or some handholding. Very import
These guys don't know the first thing about marketing. Their logo doesn't look quite as shitty as other FOSS project logos, but that's about it. I couldn't even find screenshots.
Want to have some obscure half-assed unfinished FOSS project to become the most hyped and famous? Here, this is how you do it. (Note: That site is outdated, but it was the best for a FOSS project back then)
Being in Webdev for 15 years I can say that getting the job done quick is all that counts. Most of the web is run by the bizarest of contraptions in software you can imagine - but they get the job done. Take for instance Wordpress: It's a prime example for bad software architecture and the inner platform antipattern.
But it works. It delivers, Any idiot can download and install WP, pop in a theme and start fiddling. The webev gets called in when the system is all gummed up and feature x,y or z has to be added with magic programming trick (i.e. dirty hacks) quickly.
Same goes for PHP as a PL. Strange, bizar and hilarious, but it get's the job done.
That's what counts.
All that been said, it's precisely because of this that your skills as a webdev determine wether you'll have some freedom to pick your job and a fair salary or if you'll be treaded badly. I've been through so many projects that I can tell you even the crappy devs don't mean it. If there's a crew of 5 coding without versioning, that's because their to dumb to know any better and they won't listen to you if you're not ready to walk out of a job that only pays you a McDs salary.
If however, you've got the skills and the tools, most people will think you're a demi-god. Use whatever technology you want, but be able to deliver. I've started building my own toolkit a while ago - it involves bash-cli snippets and PHP code - and dive into any mess my client/boss requires me to work with, be it Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla or whatever. I've since become good enough that I can make some demands, but I have no illusions about my outlook in the webdev world. It is a volatile occupation and unless you move into Java/Oralce, SAP or MS territory, it will stay that way.
The upside is the freedom we have. We get to use FOSS most of the time as primary tools of trade and get to try out new things 5 times a week - neat. You can't have it both ways.
In a nutshell: If you want to stand your ground, you have to be good at both: Overall problem solving experience and proficient expert knowledge in the current tools of your trade. If you stick to building those mostly from tried-and-true FOSS technologies, you'll keep pointless learning to a minimum. For instance, I make a point of using grep to search for snippets of code in a project. My IDE may be dead 3 years from now, as may be the system I'm using. grep will be around until I die.
However, it has me wondering: What if there were BTL chips like in the Shadowrun RPG (Pen & Paper) or those simulations like in the novel "Altered Carbon" were real?
In the Shadowrun RPG BTL ("Better than life" (sic!)) chips are *highly* adictive. Which raises the question: Would you give it a shot?... I'd probably take a very close look at BTL junkies first.... And then say no.
As for those simulations in Altered Carbon - I wouldn't mind trying one of those.:-)
I've met people who think I'm sort of crazy. Aspergers and ADHD are mentioned.
Here's my take on it: I do have concentration problems. I am absolutely positively 100% sure that those are due to bad/suboptimal diet and stress during my time in the womb and during early childhood. There is solid scientific evidence that stress in early childhood influences the brain, the perception and self-esteem/perception. That influences behaviour and social standing. No two ways about it. I consider quite a bit of my fellow humans behaviour bizar, unexplainable, pointless and silly. I'm a hunter gatherer in a settler/farmers world. I have a range of choices for my life: Rebel, Leader, Visionary, Terrorist, Criminal, Artist, Specialist.
Being a "normal" person by todays standards is *not* one of them.
I also suspect that I am above average intelligent and thus a lot of what I do or say, although smart, may actually appear crazy to people around me. The problem is that smart people look like crazy people to normal people.
>>>It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. - Jippu Krishnamurty
My last years of school I spent in Waldorf School. It was a Godsend. Art, Manual Crafts, Stagecraft/Performing Arts, Music and vivid practical scientific education. Not a dull moment in School - ever.
I would strongly recommend that you see to it that your kid gets a broad education, and not just the brain treatment, but practical skills and a solid foundation in arts. He'll learn to express himself, he'll learn that there is more to life then the wreckage we often call society and he will also learn humility towards people who fly under the radar in other way - doing manual work or 'unintellectual' labor. Send him to the scouts. Watch out for nutrition, minimalise media consumption and have him do adventure sports.
And he will also learn to turn the fact that he is a little different into a huge advantage.
Simplicity needs to be the new goal in a FOSS OS project like Linux. 20 years ago it was all about getting an alternative to systems that cost north of 100 000$ up and running to be able to do the stuff we all wanted to do but couldn't afford to.
Today leading FOSS solutions and extremely powerful hardware is available in abundance, as are network and cyperpunk-working-coding-and-collaboration resources. It is now that we need to push for simplicity and perhaps even an own hardware standard.
To be honest, putting emphasis on FOSS hardware might even provide the right incentive for exactly that simplicity. Apple won all the Unixers over a decade ago, because it offered exactly that. Zero-fuss out-of-the-box FOSS-*nix functionality. It started losing them ever since the golden cage starting to close and lock. This is a gap the FOSS community needs to fill.
It is, in my opinion, high time for FOSS hardware to move into the limelight. We need to start crowdfunding our own NixBook Airs, flashy pro desktops and servers.... The librem 15 is a step in the right direction - we need more of that.
If sites like those are your primary sales vector, you're better off at a counter at McD's. Seriously.
As a freelancer, a website (your own!) is mostly or even - most of the time - *only* an amplifier for contacts established in person. You want to do projects for people who couldn't be bothered to look into the internet. You talk to them, give them your card and when they check you out on the web they find this awesome site that underlines and emphasises every positive impression you made. Then they grab the phone and call you. That's what you want. Anything else is non-sense.
Project websites are scooping territory for shady headhunters at best and at worst and most of the time the software developments equivalent of a used-car-sales lot or a flea market.
Exception (sort of) / When registering with a project site might be feasible: There is one thing were some of the more respectable sites - often those that cost a monthly fee to joing - are a good sales vector: When you are a specialist who's exotic or rare field can easyly be searched for. For instance, if you're particularly good as a Java Developer for some specific environment like JBoss or an SAP ABAP developer or some ultra-certified Oracle person, then the more professional project sites might get you the one or other Gig and the one or other stream of projects going. But even then, these are only a side-orchestra.
Never rely on such sites as your main soucre of income. Stretch out your feelers and get in contact with folks in the real world, that's where the money is anyway. As a specialist freelancer - and in IT you always are a specialist - networking, paperwork and relations is at least 50% of the work.
Thanks for the feedback. My conclusion is, that I'm going to look into a few variants of solutions, one main track being ready-made VMs of my favourite installation, the other being Debian FAI.... I'm pretty sure I'm sticking with Debian for this task, so FAI is probably the way to go. I will look into Puppet aswell, although I'm not sure yet if it's usefull for speeding initial installation and setup of individual systems.
I wasn't aware of the Turnkey Linux stuff, so thanks for that tip aswell.
I also understand the notion that setup and configuration is bascially our job as devs and IT experts, nevertheless, I suspected that the strong presence of LAMP might have brought about something ready-made that speeds up the task a little.... I'll start rolling my own solution and perhaps put it online some day for others to use.... Scratch your own itch, they say, don't they?
Searched for the link again, found it this time.........
The last time I had that sort of a chill run down my spine was in that one short shot in "The Ring" - were you see the girls face.... That was a *long* time ago. No, I don't watch horror movies.
Summary of the videoclip: The pilot is chaged in a well built cage, as if on display for this exact purpose. It's smack in the center of a court among combat ruins. Roughly 10-20 soldiers standing around in a Mad Max aestetic setting, some further up on open floors of what looks like a half-bombed building. With very clean and neat combat gear, resembling a solid desert-spotty-camo US armed forces ripp-off.... Very well funded indeed. Or they all "dressed up for the occasion". Probably a bit of both.
You hear the cheasy allah sing-sang whawha pop chanting we've heard so much of lately build up as the clips soundtrack and see composited videosnippets and "news-bulletin" effects flying about.... Don't know if that was Fox or not... wouldn't be suprised if it was the video makers though, because:
What instantly strikes the viewer - me and anybody else I bet - is that the video is *very* well made. No shaky-cam stuff, but what appears to be corrected and composited top-quality HD footage, perhaps even 2 or 4HD. Cut together in a sort of MTV-videoclip aestetic, with extra room for the camera man to move about. A cut-up of closeups putting the victim front-and-center, to allow the viewer to get close to im and build a relation... very smart. Think "Britains go talent" style personal engagement. The whole video is a barrage of quotes on western news/reality TV and action movie style quotes.... These guys have done their homework and their message is for us, no two ways about it.
He's wearing clothing that pretty much resembles the orange/red clothes we see on all those Guantanamo pictures. Mmmmh, could this be a little "wave with the telegraph mast" as we say in Germany?... I wonder. Anyway, the clothes are wet, obviously from the inflamable liquid they sprayed on him. He's pretty calm, standing in the center of the cage. Note: We're still seeing all this in a montage of shots in MTV/reality TV aestetic.
They show a shot of him praying, then a fighter in desert ski-mask (all of them have one) lighting a wooden torch and holding it to a stip of flammble. Bad guy action movie style it very much is. Intended, I bet... After a few moments the man starts burning, waving his arms in pain, then flailing and running to and fro in the cage bumping into the bars, completely engulfed in flames. He goes down and unconscious after about 10-20 seconds. Couldn't really say exactly, it seemed like an eternity, and I sure as hell have no intention watching that again.
They give it another 10-20 seconds with a close-up to his face/head crisping in the fire - he's not feeling it anymore. We do the same thing with dead animals on the barbeque, so if you think me putting it that way is cruel, think about your eating habbits.
They stop the fire and bury him with a wheel-loader dumping a load of debris and dirt onto the cage, crushing it, extinguishing the fire and burrying him all at once. The wheel loader is filmed with what looks like a seperate cam, shots change throughout the action. The whole procedure from start to finish looks very well rehearsed
Conclusion:
This stuff has happened throughout history. We know it. What's new is that anybody - that includes the scariest of religious fanatics - can take a high end cam for a few bucks from a convenience store and make this sort of video of it.
My judgment is out: These guys are serious. Not Nazi Germany serious - praise the heavens not - but like 14th century serious. Curely, fanatic and not to be reasoned with. A few more of these videos and I'd vote for two dozen
In software development, especially server-side web development this is called continuous integration (CI for short). I have nothing against it, if automated testing, instant rollback and other things are in place. And if the distro has solid quality control and feature management.... Somehow I doubt that though.
If a distro crew knows what they are doing, I'd trust them with rolling releases.... Maybe I should try this Arch Linux thing out. Any experiences? Any advice?
This *is* a suprise. I knew MS would learn the lesson eventually. Probably to late, but eventually. That they are this serious about it actually honestly suprises me. It still is to late, IMHO. FOSS toolchains, especially those web-centric ones, are deeply entrenched with developers already. And those teams deliver software and solutions orders of magnitude cheaper than anything MS has to offer - even if they runtime tech is now all FOSS.
But, who knows? MS might just become the FOSS services company Linuxcare alway wanted to be. They've should've started 10 years ago. If they make a few more smart moves they'll be in the limelight again.
If you're well and broadly educated, teaching your child at home - if it is allowed - isn't the worst option, especially if the public schools available suck.
Sidenote: In Germany, homeschooling is illegal - the reasoning being, that children should be introduced to society and a broader perspective, even if advantages it migh have by being homeschooled are mitigated. It's also a mechanism to prevent fanatics, like religious ones, from raising children with a one-dimensional perspective. While prohibing homeschooling if the child does regular exams to prove its level of education is debatable, there is some reasoning behind this.
That said, maybe you can do a mix: Find likeminded parents and found a mini-school. Your children get the special treatment *and* a broader perspective on things aswell. 10 Families willing to pitch together and a few parents willing to participate can work wonders. You get small classes with the special care and attention and the social interaction all in one box. I remember my days in a private school with 16 students in the class. It was awesome.
If that's not an option, homeschooling done well can be a very good thing. School itself can be hell. I know regular school would have been for me.... But I also know my father probably would've sucked at homeschooling, so it can be a bit of a tradeoff.... What does your child say?
There is only one kind of systematic prejudice in today's institutions. And it is against white males. And if you happen to be heterosexual too, no one will target you for any favoritism.
Oh, come on! Cry me a river.
Look at any movie in the west - the hero is a white heterosexual man 99% of the time. Look at most any culture and men are heroes and lead in every important aspect of society, super-models aside. Of course, in all these cultures there are also more dropouts on the male side, but that's how evolution wired the sexes as we know today.
Women get aided in MINT, come out of school an avarage of 2 or more gradelevels better than boys (every since) and yet it's still men who get the higher salary and end up in boss positions. Why? Because we (men), evolution and our culture wired us to not give a shit about grades and some dumb-ass teacher! Because we know better, don't we? But we *are* wired to seriously give a shit how much we get for our work. Especially so if we want to impress the ladies. A man is way likely would rather be a bum or at least a dropout than work under circumstances he considers below him. I know I am. He is also way more likely to grab a Kalashnikow and take what he thinks he deserves when pushed far enough. Examples all around. All the time.
Get it into your head: The most successful men don't even need a degree. It's white male college dropouts who've built the most powerful companies in the world.
Women end up having to weigh their desire to habe children against optimised career moves. In a classic society they are way less likely to completely drop out of society and also way less likely to rise to the top.
In my opinion any law that tries to curb those tendencies of gender inequality is welcome. That some of them are debatable, mostly because they are as ineffective as they are unfair, is obivous. But your statement is a blatant over-simpification and, to be honest, a tad whiney. If I may say so.
Get a grip, grow a pair and find a cute lady to have some awesome sex with - you sound like you could use some.
MS gained critical mass as the PC market boomed - that's the only reason they are around. Until a few years ago they were also able to help hardware vendors sell new stuff by deliberately turning each new OS into a performance hog, helping vendors justify selling new stuff. Vendors in turn helping MS push their new OS because of reasons. That aside, MS is mostly known for stifling innovation rather than bringing it on. The odd kinect or something aside.
Apple on the other hand always did well when the control-freak Steve Jobs was in charge. Say what you want, but the man knew what he was doing. His analysis of the market and his reflection on end-user computing in general were and still are fun and enlighting to listen to. Apple never, or very rarely, wastes your time with broad-strokes and/or half-assed bullshit. When they make a statement on their position or product line and why they have it that way it's usually spot on. With Gates and Balmer it is either boring or bullshit.
Steve Jobs was personally interested in building computers that don't suck. He truly wanted devices that he would use every day. His tantrums when someone delivered crap were feared and his persistance in pushing his people to better output was legendary. MS compared to Apple is like American cars compared to German cars. The German cars where all driven by the CEOs of the companies that built them themselves - in motor city each boss had a chauffeur. Ferdinand Porsche would notice instantly if a product he had was shit - because he used them every day. Crysler? Not so much. Look at Detroit today, and you know where that attitude lead them.
As much as I dislike a company having so much power, Apple deserves to be on top. They've turned tech-stuff into fashion and can ask 800$ for a new iPad from the next guy (and girl!) on the street. I won't fall for it - my Lenovo Yoga 2 is way better in every aspect and cost less than half - but most people will.
How MS can even remain in the market that strong is beyond me. Subscriptions for an Office Package? An OS? You've got to be kidding me!... I personally expect MS to be squished a little in the next few years, if not crushed. Apple from the high end, Google+Huawei+Xaomi etc. from the low end. No, no, sorry folks, my bet is on Google and the fruit crew and MS losing ground is long overdue IMHO.
I bought an HTC Flyer about a year after it came out. I like my HTC phone, I liked the design of the tablet and its enclousure is still one of the best ever built. I mostly wanted to fiddle with it and programm a little for Android.
Turns out that I used it every day, for real work and leisure on the go. Calendar, docs, portable hotspot, reading, watching movies or short videolectures on the go, listening to music, audiobook, taking notes, playing games, etc. I'm since convinced of the feasibility of tablet computing.
I've recently decommisioned the HTC Flyer after more than 3 years of every-day full-scale use and bought myself a 10" Lenovo Yoga 2 Android with LTE module. Awesome device. Good enclosure, 9600milliamp battery, cost less than half of the inferiour iPad Air 2. It runs for 3+ days without charging and I plan to use it as my primary mobile computing device. Will carry my MacBook Air around less because of this I suspect.
As a result I'm using my 4,5 year old HTC Phone even less, which in turn means its battery runs even longer. On top of that, you can use the Yogas battery to charge your phone - that's a feature they (Ashton Kutcher) actually advertised on the Yogas first presentation.
There are pretty decent web IDEs and PHP environments for android out there.
Would a vertical maglev be feasible?... It would be worth a try.... However, I guess a handful of buildings becoming to high for our current tried and trusted elevator technology is a luxury problem.
Spartan! Kraken!... Gotta love those codenames. You get a pretty good impression of what kind of movies the crew at microsoft has been watching lately.:-)
Wasn't that the other programming language whos users would look down on us Basic programmers? My good friend from school was one of those. Now he's a teacher and I'm a software developer.
Pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?
OK, jokes aside: Seriously, who cares how a PL is "rated" - whatever that's supposed to mean. How much it's used and how it gets the job done, or, more precisely, how much do I get paid for using it is what counts. Example: I love Python. I'm measurably more productive in Python. But I do PHP at work. Why? Wordpress and Typo3 are built with PHP. Python only has Plone and that has almost no market here in Germany.
Its that simple.
And to be honest, there are many neat exotic programming languages out there - all of which I would love to have the time to look into, but don't. Pascal definitely isn't on that list.
My advice to anyone today would be to let go of Pascal and however it is "rated" and learn some other flash exotic language - perhaps one of those countless new ones that run on the Java VM (Scala, Closure, etc.), no?
Seriously guys, this is fucking outrageous! I' writing my first post on my brand new tablet just a minute ago and you're abysmaly flaky mobile version double posts again. So it wasn't android 3.2 after all.
And why can't I turnoff ads in the mobile version?
Rob, what's going on?.... You guys need to get your shit together man - it's 2015, mobile web is standard now. Get with the effing programm.... Do you need help?n
Perhaps you need help? I'll build a professional mobile version for credit alone.
(Please don't mod down - this needs attention folks. Seriously.)
Need to run special software tied to the OS? No?... Install Linux. Really, it's that easy.
Ubuntu can be a drag, in more ways than one, but it's worth a try - and it does look really cool. Seriously. Suse and Redhat are hassle-free to install aswell. All three are definitly more hassle-free than any Windows installation you can do thesse days.
I've got Ubuntu 14.04 on my ThinkPad. And while it can be anoying (which OS isn't?), it is way ahead of Windows in usability and you can get tons of books and free info on the web for it.
Other than that I'd recommend Mac OS X or Chrome OS - but since you already have your laptop I guess that's ruled out.
Need to run special software tied to the OS? No?... Install Linux. Ubuntu can be a drag, in more ways the one, but it's worth a try. Suse and Redhat probably are hassle free aswell. All three are way easyer to install than a fresh Windows.
Video NLE on Linux or, more preciseley, in the FOSS department, is lacking. In recent years there are some tools that have become feasible - Pitivi comes to mind - but Video Editing has always been a high-end specialised market. Anybody doing video editing professionally has a full-time job already and no time to programm software on the side.
On top of that, there has been a huge consolidation in the Video NLE market, with vendors and products dropping left, right and center or simply entrenching themselves in their established niche of mostly gouvernment or conglomerate funded media - such as Avid or Media 100.
The climax of this development was Apple sewerely screwing up final cut pro as they switched to App Store versions only. Lots of much needed pro features broke or disappeared without a trace and the people moved to Adobe Premiere Pro in droves.
Then again, that premiere pro and final cut where the last big players in the field shows that there's been quite some cleaning out.
With 3D it's a little different in FOSS, because we have Blender. But let's not forget that Blender is a very fortunate exception. It has a little built-in NLE and a very neat compositor, but still is mainly a 3D toolkit. It used to be a commercial tool and we managed to buy it free for 100 000€, keeping the lead developer at the same time (Ton Roosendaal). Despite being in active development, Blender still has tough competition in the professional field, although they've been feeling the heat from Blender free offering vs. their 900$ - 6000$ range of products.
What we need in video is a programm like Fusion or Shake going full FOSS and the lead developers staying with the product, funded by a foundation or something. Or a crew like Pitivi actually getting through and sustaining with their crowd-funding model and adding in all the pro features people want.
Personally, I'm going to look into Pitivi this year to see if it holds up on simple to mid-range video tasks. They appear to be very... avid (no pun intended) and active. Maybe it's even matured further. But I don't expect miracles. If you want to do non-trivial video work today, you need tools like Fusion, Avid and the likes - and those are all closed-source.
Android has matured and leads in apps. And it's freely available for a wide range of devices already. I don't see anybody coming close to the package Google can offer, tie-in services included. Apple sells hardware - their services are a loss. MS sells business software, subscriptions to MS Office, Consoles and now tablets. AFAICT they are behind in comodity computing now.
Google makes money selling *you*. They can give away all their stuff for free, including their services. As soon as one vendor has to pay extra to adapt Tizen, there will be a strong incentive to look into Android again. Or Chrome OS as the case may be. All Google needs to do is perhaps offer a few cheap-and-easy co-branding options for their OS.
Google wants to bring the second half of humanity online, along with any hardware vendor that cares to emphasise the bottom line. I think they have a very good chance of succeeding.
Slashdot Mirror
GIT is ass on windows
Zero problems here with SourceTree and the Git that comes with it.
My Gig currently is with a classic marketing agency. Very nice folks - a breath of fresh air when it comes to my history with agencies - but breathtakingly clueless with IT - as usual in this industry. I'm basically the only IT/dev guy in a shop of 30. Has its ups and downs. ... Whatever.
They asked me on board as a webdev, to establish a pipeline and introduce versioning. I'm using Git on a VMed central linux system and SourceTree as client. Our outside SSH port is mapped to that VM, so the the people on a project can commit docs or code on the go.
Sidenote: I wouldn't use anything other than Git, it's just not worth it. Git has won the versioning thing. End of story. ... Bazaar might be an alternative, if you need the same click-ui on windows, mac *and* linux, but that is probably a very rare case.
As a client we use SourceTree on both Mac and Windows, so all UIs look more or less the same. No Tortoise, for that exact reason! I show them where to click to see the entire file-tree as in finder or explorer, so nobody is confused and explain the difference between a commit and a push. In a pinch, the windows and mac folks can help each other out if I'm not around, since they’re all using SourceTree. And it keeps this "Versioning" thing nice and secluded. That's also a reason.
I want to get them to use versioning, so I tell them #1 is always fear of using it. I tell them not to worry, it's pratically impossible to break anything (one of the advantages of Git). I tell them to version often and comment their commits, even if it's just smalltalk. The point is getting used to commenting. We don't uses branches, just master. I also tell them to try and logically group commits, but not kill themselves if it goes wrong. It happens - with me aswell. No harm done.
Once everyone is pro in versioning, we might change the branching policy.
As for all the other buttons in SourceTree, I just tell them to ignore them and that they are for later. I do tell them the meaning of "Stash" and how nifty that is when you've forgotten to pull before starting your work, but only those who need and want to know. ... As soon as they get a pull conflict, they ususall do want to know, so no problem here.
I've established a naming-standard with ProjectFolderName/git-repo for local clones, so everyone has a space where they can fiddle for the project without needing to inmediately version if they just want to try out a new tool or salvage an older Photoshop template or something. Project docs go into /docs, developer stuff goes into /code (mostly complete wordpress installs or some other thing), DB dumps into /db, graphics, layout, DTP files and videos and other raw material usually goes into /assets, etc. ... You get the picture.
We're/I'm not to strict with dir-policy and let it grow a little too. No project is like another.
Important:
I put my agency behind versioning, because right now its Filename-02122014-final-extra-specialEdit-Peter.doc on a central drive and shit. Especially with the editorial team. Not good. I did a neat presentation and help everyone who comes into versioning to get familiar with the concept. Installing SourceTree, doing a few demo commits, have them do it, show them the red numbers, looking at the history log and file-changes and stuff.
A few months in and the online team is starting to get used to versioning on some projects. Once everyone there is on board we’ll move into other departments. My PM for one large online project is using versioning regularly now, as are the students helping out. That the bosses are behind all this helps.
Sidenote: More than half of the team is ladies, as is my PM, btw.
I tell everyone that they can ask me everything a million times and call me at 2 o’clock in the morning if it’s a versioning problem and they need my advice or some handholding. Very import
These guys don't know the first thing about marketing. Their logo doesn't look quite as shitty as other FOSS project logos, but that's about it. I couldn't even find screenshots.
Want to have some obscure half-assed unfinished FOSS project to become the most hyped and famous?
Here, this is how you do it. (Note: That site is outdated, but it was the best for a FOSS project back then)
Being in Webdev for 15 years I can say that getting the job done quick is all that counts. Most of the web is run by the bizarest of contraptions in software you can imagine - but they get the job done. Take for instance Wordpress: It's a prime example for bad software architecture and the inner platform antipattern.
But it works. It delivers, Any idiot can download and install WP, pop in a theme and start fiddling. The webev gets called in when the system is all gummed up and feature x,y or z has to be added with magic programming trick (i.e. dirty hacks) quickly.
Same goes for PHP as a PL. Strange, bizar and hilarious, but it get's the job done.
That's what counts.
All that been said, it's precisely because of this that your skills as a webdev determine wether you'll have some freedom to pick your job and a fair salary or if you'll be treaded badly. I've been through so many projects that I can tell you even the crappy devs don't mean it. If there's a crew of 5 coding without versioning, that's because their to dumb to know any better and they won't listen to you if you're not ready to walk out of a job that only pays you a McDs salary.
If however, you've got the skills and the tools, most people will think you're a demi-god. Use whatever technology you want, but be able to deliver. I've started building my own toolkit a while ago - it involves bash-cli snippets and PHP code - and dive into any mess my client/boss requires me to work with, be it Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla or whatever. I've since become good enough that I can make some demands, but I have no illusions about my outlook in the webdev world. It is a volatile occupation and unless you move into Java/Oralce, SAP or MS territory, it will stay that way.
The upside is the freedom we have. We get to use FOSS most of the time as primary tools of trade and get to try out new things 5 times a week - neat. You can't have it both ways.
In a nutshell: If you want to stand your ground, you have to be good at both: Overall problem solving experience and proficient expert knowledge in the current tools of your trade. If you stick to building those mostly from tried-and-true FOSS technologies, you'll keep pointless learning to a minimum. For instance, I make a point of using grep to search for snippets of code in a project. My IDE may be dead 3 years from now, as may be the system I'm using. grep will be around until I die.
My 2 cents.
This looks like snake-oil all around to me.
However, it has me wondering: What if there were BTL chips like in the Shadowrun RPG (Pen & Paper) or those simulations like in the novel "Altered Carbon" were real?
In the Shadowrun RPG BTL ("Better than life" (sic!)) chips are *highly* adictive. Which raises the question: Would you give it a shot? ... I'd probably take a very close look at BTL junkies first. ... And then say no.
As for those simulations in Altered Carbon - I wouldn't mind trying one of those. :-)
I've met people who think I'm sort of crazy. Aspergers and ADHD are mentioned.
Here's my take on it:
I do have concentration problems. I am absolutely positively 100% sure that those are due to bad/suboptimal diet and stress during my time in the womb and during early childhood. There is solid scientific evidence that stress in early childhood influences the brain, the perception and self-esteem/perception. That influences behaviour and social standing. No two ways about it. I consider quite a bit of my fellow humans behaviour bizar, unexplainable, pointless and silly. I'm a hunter gatherer in a settler/farmers world. I have a range of choices for my life: Rebel, Leader, Visionary, Terrorist, Criminal, Artist, Specialist.
Being a "normal" person by todays standards is *not* one of them.
I also suspect that I am above average intelligent and thus a lot of what I do or say, although smart, may actually appear crazy to people around me. The problem is that smart people look like crazy people to normal people.
>>>It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. - Jippu Krishnamurty
My last years of school I spent in Waldorf School. It was a Godsend. Art, Manual Crafts, Stagecraft/Performing Arts, Music and vivid practical scientific education. Not a dull moment in School - ever.
I would strongly recommend that you see to it that your kid gets a broad education, and not just the brain treatment, but practical skills and a solid foundation in arts. He'll learn to express himself, he'll learn that there is more to life then the wreckage we often call society and he will also learn humility towards people who fly under the radar in other way - doing manual work or 'unintellectual' labor. Send him to the scouts.
Watch out for nutrition, minimalise media consumption and have him do adventure sports.
And he will also learn to turn the fact that he is a little different into a huge advantage.
My 2 cents.
Simplicity needs to be the new goal in a FOSS OS project like Linux. 20 years ago it was all about getting an alternative to systems that cost north of 100 000$ up and running to be able to do the stuff we all wanted to do but couldn't afford to.
Today leading FOSS solutions and extremely powerful hardware is available in abundance, as are network and cyperpunk-working-coding-and-collaboration resources. It is now that we need to push for simplicity and perhaps even an own hardware standard.
To be honest, putting emphasis on FOSS hardware might even provide the right incentive for exactly that simplicity. Apple won all the Unixers over a decade ago, because it offered exactly that. Zero-fuss out-of-the-box FOSS-*nix functionality. It started losing them ever since the golden cage starting to close and lock. This is a gap the FOSS community needs to fill.
It is, in my opinion, high time for FOSS hardware to move into the limelight. We need to start crowdfunding our own NixBook Airs, flashy pro desktops and servers. ... The librem 15 is a step in the right direction - we need more of that.
If sites like those are your primary sales vector, you're better off at a counter at McD's. Seriously.
As a freelancer, a website (your own!) is mostly or even - most of the time - *only* an amplifier for contacts established in person. You want to do projects for people who couldn't be bothered to look into the internet. You talk to them, give them your card and when they check you out on the web they find this awesome site that underlines and emphasises every positive impression you made. Then they grab the phone and call you. That's what you want. Anything else is non-sense.
Project websites are scooping territory for shady headhunters at best and at worst and most of the time the software developments equivalent of a used-car-sales lot or a flea market.
Exception (sort of) / When registering with a project site might be feasible:
There is one thing were some of the more respectable sites - often those that cost a monthly fee to joing - are a good sales vector: When you are a specialist who's exotic or rare field can easyly be searched for. For instance, if you're particularly good as a Java Developer for some specific environment like JBoss or an SAP ABAP developer or some ultra-certified Oracle person, then the more professional project sites might get you the one or other Gig and the one or other stream of projects going. But even then, these are only a side-orchestra.
Never rely on such sites as your main soucre of income. Stretch out your feelers and get in contact with folks in the real world, that's where the money is anyway. As a specialist freelancer - and in IT you always are a specialist - networking, paperwork and relations is at least 50% of the work.
Good luck from a fellow (former/semi) freelancer.
... Take off and nuke the entire site from orbit.
Thanks for the feedback. My conclusion is, that I'm going to look into a few variants of solutions, one main track being ready-made VMs of my favourite installation, the other being Debian FAI. ... I'm pretty sure I'm sticking with Debian for this task, so FAI is probably the way to go. I will look into Puppet aswell, although I'm not sure yet if it's usefull for speeding initial installation and setup of individual systems.
I wasn't aware of the Turnkey Linux stuff, so thanks for that tip aswell.
I also understand the notion that setup and configuration is bascially our job as devs and IT experts, nevertheless, I suspected that the strong presence of LAMP might have brought about something ready-made that speeds up the task a little. ... I'll start rolling my own solution and perhaps put it online some day for others to use. ... Scratch your own itch, they say, don't they?
Once again, thanks for the feedback.
Searched for the link again, found it this time ... ... ...
The last time I had that sort of a chill run down my spine was in that one short shot in "The Ring" - were you see the girls face. ... That was a *long* time ago. No, I don't watch horror movies.
Summary of the videoclip: ... Very well funded indeed. Or they all "dressed up for the occasion". Probably a bit of both.
The pilot is chaged in a well built cage, as if on display for this exact purpose. It's smack in the center of a court among combat ruins. Roughly 10-20 soldiers standing around in a Mad Max aestetic setting, some further up on open floors of what looks like a half-bombed building. With very clean and neat combat gear, resembling a solid desert-spotty-camo US armed forces ripp-off.
You hear the cheasy allah sing-sang whawha pop chanting we've heard so much of lately build up as the clips soundtrack and see composited videosnippets and "news-bulletin" effects flying about. ... Don't know if that was Fox or not ... wouldn't be suprised if it was the video makers though, because:
What instantly strikes the viewer - me and anybody else I bet - is that the video is *very* well made. No shaky-cam stuff, but what appears to be corrected and composited top-quality HD footage, perhaps even 2 or 4HD. Cut together in a sort of MTV-videoclip aestetic, with extra room for the camera man to move about. A cut-up of closeups putting the victim front-and-center, to allow the viewer to get close to im and build a relation ... very smart. Think "Britains go talent" style personal engagement. The whole video is a barrage of quotes on western news/reality TV and action movie style quotes. ... These guys have done their homework and their message is for us, no two ways about it.
He's wearing clothing that pretty much resembles the orange/red clothes we see on all those Guantanamo pictures. Mmmmh, could this be a little "wave with the telegraph mast" as we say in Germany? ... I wonder. Anyway, the clothes are wet, obviously from the inflamable liquid they sprayed on him. He's pretty calm, standing in the center of the cage. Note: We're still seeing all this in a montage of shots in MTV/reality TV aestetic.
They show a shot of him praying, then a fighter in desert ski-mask (all of them have one) lighting a wooden torch and holding it to a stip of flammble. Bad guy action movie style it very much is. Intended, I bet ... After a few moments the man starts burning, waving his arms in pain, then flailing and running to and fro in the cage bumping into the bars, completely engulfed in flames. He goes down and unconscious after about 10-20 seconds. Couldn't really say exactly, it seemed like an eternity, and I sure as hell have no intention watching that again.
They give it another 10-20 seconds with a close-up to his face/head crisping in the fire - he's not feeling it anymore.
We do the same thing with dead animals on the barbeque, so if you think me putting it that way is cruel, think about your eating habbits.
They stop the fire and bury him with a wheel-loader dumping a load of debris and dirt onto the cage, crushing it, extinguishing the fire and burrying him all at once. The wheel loader is filmed with what looks like a seperate cam, shots change throughout the action. The whole procedure from start to finish looks very well rehearsed
Conclusion:
This stuff has happened throughout history. We know it.
What's new is that anybody - that includes the scariest of religious fanatics - can take a high end cam for a few bucks from a convenience store and make this sort of video of it.
My judgment is out:
These guys are serious. Not Nazi Germany serious - praise the heavens not - but like 14th century serious. Curely, fanatic and not to be reasoned with. A few more of these videos and I'd vote for two dozen
In software development, especially server-side web development this is called continuous integration (CI for short). I have nothing against it, if automated testing, instant rollback and other things are in place. And if the distro has solid quality control and feature management. ... Somehow I doubt that though.
If a distro crew knows what they are doing, I'd trust them with rolling releases. ... Maybe I should try this Arch Linux thing out. Any experiences? Any advice?
This *is* a suprise. I knew MS would learn the lesson eventually. Probably to late, but eventually. That they are this serious about it actually honestly suprises me.
It still is to late, IMHO. FOSS toolchains, especially those web-centric ones, are deeply entrenched with developers already. And those teams deliver software and solutions orders of magnitude cheaper than anything MS has to offer - even if they runtime tech is now all FOSS.
But, who knows? MS might just become the FOSS services company Linuxcare alway wanted to be. They've should've started 10 years ago. If they make a few more smart moves they'll be in the limelight again.
My 2 cents.
If you're well and broadly educated, teaching your child at home - if it is allowed - isn't the worst option, especially if the public schools available suck.
Sidenote: In Germany, homeschooling is illegal - the reasoning being, that children should be introduced to society and a broader perspective, even if advantages it migh have by being homeschooled are mitigated. It's also a mechanism to prevent fanatics, like religious ones, from raising children with a one-dimensional perspective. While prohibing homeschooling if the child does regular exams to prove its level of education is debatable, there is some reasoning behind this.
That said, maybe you can do a mix: Find likeminded parents and found a mini-school. Your children get the special treatment *and* a broader perspective on things aswell. 10 Families willing to pitch together and a few parents willing to participate can work wonders. You get small classes with the special care and attention and the social interaction all in one box. I remember my days in a private school with 16 students in the class. It was awesome.
If that's not an option, homeschooling done well can be a very good thing. School itself can be hell. I know regular school would have been for me. ... But I also know my father probably would've sucked at homeschooling, so it can be a bit of a tradeoff. ... What does your child say?
There is only one kind of systematic prejudice in today's institutions. And it is against white males. And if you happen to be heterosexual too, no one will target you for any favoritism.
Oh, come on! Cry me a river.
Look at any movie in the west - the hero is a white heterosexual man 99% of the time. Look at most any culture and men are heroes and lead in every important aspect of society, super-models aside. Of course, in all these cultures there are also more dropouts on the male side, but that's how evolution wired the sexes as we know today.
Women get aided in MINT, come out of school an avarage of 2 or more gradelevels better than boys (every since) and yet it's still men who get the higher salary and end up in boss positions.
Why?
Because we (men), evolution and our culture wired us to not give a shit about grades and some dumb-ass teacher! Because we know better, don't we? But we *are* wired to seriously give a shit how much we get for our work. Especially so if we want to impress the ladies. A man is way likely would rather be a bum or at least a dropout than work under circumstances he considers below him. I know I am. He is also way more likely to grab a Kalashnikow and take what he thinks he deserves when pushed far enough. Examples all around. All the time.
Get it into your head: The most successful men don't even need a degree. It's white male college dropouts who've built the most powerful companies in the world.
Women end up having to weigh their desire to habe children against optimised career moves. In a classic society they are way less likely to completely drop out of society and also way less likely to rise to the top.
In my opinion any law that tries to curb those tendencies of gender inequality is welcome. That some of them are debatable, mostly because they are as ineffective as they are unfair, is obivous. But your statement is a blatant over-simpification and, to be honest, a tad whiney. If I may say so.
Get a grip, grow a pair and find a cute lady to have some awesome sex with - you sound like you could use some.
MS gained critical mass as the PC market boomed - that's the only reason they are around. Until a few years ago they were also able to help hardware vendors sell new stuff by deliberately turning each new OS into a performance hog, helping vendors justify selling new stuff. Vendors in turn helping MS push their new OS because of reasons.
That aside, MS is mostly known for stifling innovation rather than bringing it on. The odd kinect or something aside.
Apple on the other hand always did well when the control-freak Steve Jobs was in charge. Say what you want, but the man knew what he was doing. His analysis of the market and his reflection on end-user computing in general were and still are fun and enlighting to listen to. Apple never, or very rarely, wastes your time with broad-strokes and/or half-assed bullshit. When they make a statement on their position or product line and why they have it that way it's usually spot on. With Gates and Balmer it is either boring or bullshit.
Steve Jobs was personally interested in building computers that don't suck. He truly wanted devices that he would use every day. His tantrums when someone delivered crap were feared and his persistance in pushing his people to better output was legendary. MS compared to Apple is like American cars compared to German cars. The German cars where all driven by the CEOs of the companies that built them themselves - in motor city each boss had a chauffeur. Ferdinand Porsche would notice instantly if a product he had was shit - because he used them every day. Crysler? Not so much. Look at Detroit today, and you know where that attitude lead them.
As much as I dislike a company having so much power, Apple deserves to be on top. They've turned tech-stuff into fashion and can ask 800$ for a new iPad from the next guy (and girl!) on the street. I won't fall for it - my Lenovo Yoga 2 is way better in every aspect and cost less than half - but most people will.
How MS can even remain in the market that strong is beyond me. Subscriptions for an Office Package? An OS? You've got to be kidding me! ... I personally expect MS to be squished a little in the next few years, if not crushed. Apple from the high end, Google+Huawei+Xaomi etc. from the low end. No, no, sorry folks, my bet is on Google and the fruit crew and MS losing ground is long overdue IMHO.
I bought an HTC Flyer about a year after it came out. I like my HTC phone, I liked the design of the tablet and its enclousure is still one of the best ever built. I mostly wanted to fiddle with it and programm a little for Android.
Turns out that I used it every day, for real work and leisure on the go. Calendar, docs, portable hotspot, reading, watching movies or short videolectures on the go, listening to music, audiobook, taking notes, playing games, etc. I'm since convinced of the feasibility of tablet computing.
I've recently decommisioned the HTC Flyer after more than 3 years of every-day full-scale use and bought myself a 10" Lenovo Yoga 2 Android with LTE module. Awesome device. Good enclosure, 9600milliamp battery, cost less than half of the inferiour iPad Air 2. It runs for 3+ days without charging and I plan to use it as my primary mobile computing device. Will carry my MacBook Air around less because of this I suspect.
As a result I'm using my 4,5 year old HTC Phone even less, which in turn means its battery runs even longer. On top of that, you can use the Yogas battery to charge your phone - that's a feature they (Ashton Kutcher) actually advertised on the Yogas first presentation.
There are pretty decent web IDEs and PHP environments for android out there.
My 2 cents.
Would a vertical maglev be feasible? ... It would be worth a try. ... However, I guess a handful of buildings becoming to high for our current tried and trusted elevator technology is a luxury problem.
Spartan! Kraken! ... Gotta love those codenames. You get a pretty good impression of what kind of movies the crew at microsoft has been watching lately. :-)
Wasn't that the other programming language whos users would look down on us Basic programmers? My good friend from school was one of those. Now he's a teacher and I'm a software developer.
Pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?
OK, jokes aside: Seriously, who cares how a PL is "rated" - whatever that's supposed to mean. How much it's used and how it gets the job done, or, more precisely, how much do I get paid for using it is what counts.
Example: I love Python. I'm measurably more productive in Python. But I do PHP at work. Why? Wordpress and Typo3 are built with PHP. Python only has Plone and that has almost no market here in Germany.
Its that simple.
And to be honest, there are many neat exotic programming languages out there - all of which I would love to have the time to look into, but don't. Pascal definitely isn't on that list.
My advice to anyone today would be to let go of Pascal and however it is "rated" and learn some other flash exotic language - perhaps one of those countless new ones that run on the Java VM (Scala, Closure, etc.), no?
My 2 cents.
Seriously guys, this is fucking outrageous! I' writing my first post on my brand new tablet just a minute ago and you're abysmaly flaky mobile version double posts again. So it wasn't android 3.2 after all.
And why can't I turnoff ads in the mobile version?
Rob, what's going on? .... You guys need to get your shit together man - it's 2015, mobile web is standard now. Get with the effing programm. ... Do you need help?n
Perhaps you need help? I'll build a professional mobile version for credit alone.
(Please don't mod down - this needs attention folks. Seriously.)
Need to run special software tied to the OS? No? ... Install Linux.
Really, it's that easy.
Ubuntu can be a drag, in more ways than one, but it's worth a try - and it does look really cool. Seriously.
Suse and Redhat are hassle-free to install aswell. All three are definitly more hassle-free than any Windows installation you can do thesse days.
I've got Ubuntu 14.04 on my ThinkPad. And while it can be anoying (which OS isn't?), it is way ahead of Windows in usability and you can get tons of books and free info on the web for it.
Other than that I'd recommend Mac OS X or Chrome OS - but since you already have your laptop I guess that's ruled out.
Welcome to the camp. Enjoy.
Need to run special software tied to the OS? No? ... Install Linux. Ubuntu can be a drag, in more ways the one, but it's worth a try. Suse and Redhat probably are hassle free aswell. All three are way easyer to install than a fresh Windows.
Video NLE on Linux or, more preciseley, in the FOSS department, is lacking. In recent years there are some tools that have become feasible - Pitivi comes to mind - but Video Editing has always been a high-end specialised market. Anybody doing video editing professionally has a full-time job already and no time to programm software on the side.
On top of that, there has been a huge consolidation in the Video NLE market, with vendors and products dropping left, right and center or simply entrenching themselves in their established niche of mostly gouvernment or conglomerate funded media - such as Avid or Media 100.
The climax of this development was Apple sewerely screwing up final cut pro as they switched to App Store versions only. Lots of much needed pro features broke or disappeared without a trace and the people moved to Adobe Premiere Pro in droves.
Then again, that premiere pro and final cut where the last big players in the field shows that there's been quite some cleaning out.
With 3D it's a little different in FOSS, because we have Blender. But let's not forget that Blender is a very fortunate exception. It has a little built-in NLE and a very neat compositor, but still is mainly a 3D toolkit. It used to be a commercial tool and we managed to buy it free for 100 000€, keeping the lead developer at the same time (Ton Roosendaal). Despite being in active development, Blender still has tough competition in the professional field, although they've been feeling the heat from Blender free offering vs. their 900$ - 6000$ range of products.
What we need in video is a programm like Fusion or Shake going full FOSS and the lead developers staying with the product, funded by a foundation or something. Or a crew like Pitivi actually getting through and sustaining with their crowd-funding model and adding in all the pro features people want.
Personally, I'm going to look into Pitivi this year to see if it holds up on simple to mid-range video tasks. They appear to be very ... avid (no pun intended) and active. Maybe it's even matured further. But I don't expect miracles. If you want to do non-trivial video work today, you need tools like Fusion, Avid and the likes - and those are all closed-source.
Android has matured and leads in apps. And it's freely available for a wide range of devices already. I don't see anybody coming close to the package Google can offer, tie-in services included. Apple sells hardware - their services are a loss. MS sells business software, subscriptions to MS Office, Consoles and now tablets. AFAICT they are behind in comodity computing now.
Google makes money selling *you*. They can give away all their stuff for free, including their services. As soon as one vendor has to pay extra to adapt Tizen, there will be a strong incentive to look into Android again. Or Chrome OS as the case may be. All Google needs to do is perhaps offer a few cheap-and-easy co-branding options for their OS.
Google wants to bring the second half of humanity online, along with any hardware vendor that cares to emphasise the bottom line.
I think they have a very good chance of succeeding.
My 2 cents.