One large thing that prevents improvement is confusion between what's changing and what's not.
Each year we have large increases in hardware performance and new types of hardware. We also are also playing around with the best way to "talk" to computers with new computer languages and such.
On the other hand, there are things that are basically the same year after year. How to do quality assurance. How to gather requirements from customers (users). Some of these things are basically no different than things delt with during the industrial revolution...
I'm very wary of assesing the value of some "new" paradim until it has been around for 10-20 years. Every 5-10 years we have something new fad that is "going to change software engineering". We need to concentrate on the things that *are* changing and the things that are staying the same. Just because my CPU speed is going to double in 18 months isn't going to fix the fact that I'm not properly testing my software properly. Or that it doesn't do what my customers want.
None of the links in the base topic is actually to the article.
I'd try the informal route first before a laywer..
on
Headhunting Laws?
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· Score: 3, Insightful
My first reaction is that you should just explain to the HR department what you just explained to us. That you have no legally binding agreement with anyone else. If this company really wants you they should be reasonable about it. Get 'X Solutions, Inc.' to 'show you the agreement' you signed.
My second reaction is that there is something else going on and that this 'third party resume' stuff if just a smokescreen for something else. Maybe they did an informal background check on you and found the wrong person... or maybe they did did an informal background check and found the right person. Remember that conviction for fraud you had a few years ago.:-)
The main thing that gets glossed over in his argument is that unlike oil or solar you never get more energy from hydrogen than you put in. Sure there's a lot of hydrogen around, but to break H20 apart is always going to take slightly more energy than you get when you burn it or use a fuel cell to put it back together.
Hydrogen is better compared with gyroscopes or batteries than oil, solar or nuclear.
Have you actually done this yet? I tried it on my Palm IIIxe and can't get back to PalmOS. The instructions for returning to PalmOS only work for Palm Vx. I tried both the Palm IIIxe *and* the Palm Vx "kit" and both just talk about restoring a Vx (it requires a Vx specific.exe from Palm.com).
This is true of more than computer technology...
on
Rebooting The World?
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· Score: 1
The first computer is hard, the millionth is a lot easier.
Mining and refining the first pound of iron ore is hard, the millionth pound(with iron/steel tools) is a lot easier.
It seems like a lot of different types of technology come to become "recursively" dependent on themselves as they mature.
Re:Is this the web equivalent of flashing?
on
Online Journals
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· Score: 1
My comments assumed that the journal was available on the web for anyone to read. I completely agree there is value and no harm in keeping a private journal or, as you mentioned, as a way to interact with friends.
Is this the web equivalent of flashing?
on
Online Journals
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· Score: 1
You know, the grisled old man walking around in a trench coat "flashing" people for... whatever reason.
This seems similar to JenniCam and I just don't understand why someone would do this. Not that I don't visit JenniCam occasionally. Not that I can't imagine an interesting online journal. And
I suppose an online journal is somewhat better in that you can choose what to reveal to everyone, but you still are revealing intimate details of your life.
It seems like normal human relationships involve a kind of progressive disclosure. A forming of intimacy where you reveal progressively more as your comfort level grows... and all or most relationships reach a plateau based on mutual comfort level and societal norms for the type of relationship you are having.
Not that JenniCam and web journals aren't good or, at least, entertaining for me, but is it good, healthy and normal for the people doing it?
BTW, Avantgo does not sync. For the most part the Avantgo data is one way, that is, clipped web pages out to your PDA.
Also note that Avantgo releasing the source code through mobilelink.org is less than it seems. It says that they have stopped releasing new versions and you get the impression from the site that there will be no more activity on open source MAL-sync.
Not that I don't agree that more options for syncing would be a great idea.
I've seen a lot of good comments... only ones I really disagree with are the Clearcase haters. If you fully understand and use all the features Clearcase is one best code management and development systems I've ever used.
Some comments about Clearcase I didn't see mentioned... it is very picky about the OS patch level. Because it is highly integrated into the OS filesystem, the support for new OS versions lags each version by a few months. Also I think things like CVS perform better in a WAN and dialin environment. Clearcase kind of assumes a fast network and a LAN.
I've seem some robustness issues with CVS. Not that it is buggy per se, but because it keeps the client state on the local client filesystem (in the CVS/ directories) it can be corrupted and then it does strange things. Developers can do some pretty strange things in their local environment and they just expect CVS to figure it out... and CVS gets confused sometimes.
I have a growing appreciation for Perforce (P4). It gives you everything CVS does, it is robust and does branching and merging to rival Clearcase. The "atomic" checkins of P4 is very nice over CVS and the reporting of checkin history and other info is a lot faster and better than CVS.
Slashdot Mirror
The Microsoft press release title will be...
"Using Linux causes death!"
Linus and Stallman would be definites... and, shoot, what is the name of the Mozilla guy?
If you wanted to go more "classical" you could do people like Blaise Pascal or Dikstra or even Turning.
One large thing that prevents improvement is confusion between what's changing and what's not.
Each year we have large increases in hardware performance and new types of hardware. We also are also playing around with the best way to "talk" to computers with new computer languages and such.
On the other hand, there are things that are basically the same year after year. How to do quality assurance. How to gather requirements from customers (users). Some of these things are basically no different than things delt with during the industrial revolution...
I'm very wary of assesing the value of some "new" paradim until it has been around for 10-20 years. Every 5-10 years we have something new fad that is "going to change software engineering". We need to concentrate on the things that *are* changing and the things that are staying the same. Just because my CPU speed is going to double in 18 months isn't going to fix the fact that I'm not properly testing my software properly. Or that it doesn't do what my customers want.
None of the links in the base topic is actually to the article.
My first reaction is that you should just explain to the HR department what you just explained to us. That you have no legally binding agreement with anyone else. If this company really wants you they should be reasonable about it. Get 'X Solutions, Inc.' to 'show you the agreement' you signed.
:-)
My second reaction is that there is something else going on and that this 'third party resume' stuff if just a smokescreen for something else. Maybe they did an informal background check on you and found the wrong person... or maybe they did did an informal background check and found the right person. Remember that conviction for fraud you had a few years ago.
Start a vncserver on the computer and go to another computer and use vncviewer. The other computer can even be a Windows box... or vice versa.
The main thing that gets glossed over in his argument is that unlike oil or solar you never get more energy from hydrogen than you put in. Sure there's a lot of hydrogen around, but to break H20 apart is always going to take slightly more energy than you get when you burn it or use a fuel cell to put it back together.
Hydrogen is better compared with gyroscopes or batteries than oil, solar or nuclear.
I predict that T-shirts with nice clear pictures of the FBI most wanted will become *really* popular in that area. :-)
Have you actually done this yet? I tried it on my Palm IIIxe and can't get back to PalmOS. The instructions for returning to PalmOS only work for Palm Vx. I tried both the Palm IIIxe *and* the Palm Vx "kit" and both just talk about restoring a Vx (it requires a Vx specific .exe from Palm.com).
The first computer is hard, the millionth is a lot easier.
Mining and refining the first pound of iron ore is hard, the millionth pound(with iron/steel tools) is a lot easier.
It seems like a lot of different types of technology come to become "recursively" dependent on themselves as they mature.
My comments assumed that the journal was available on the web for anyone to read. I completely agree there is value and no harm in keeping a private journal or, as you mentioned, as a way to interact with friends.
You know, the grisled old man walking around in a trench coat "flashing" people for... whatever reason.
This seems similar to JenniCam and I just don't understand why someone would do this. Not that I don't visit JenniCam occasionally. Not that I can't imagine an interesting online journal. And I suppose an online journal is somewhat better in that you can choose what to reveal to everyone, but you still are revealing intimate details of your life.
It seems like normal human relationships involve a kind of progressive disclosure. A forming of intimacy where you reveal progressively more as your comfort level grows... and all or most relationships reach a plateau based on mutual comfort level and societal norms for the type of relationship you are having.
Not that JenniCam and web journals aren't good or, at least, entertaining for me, but is it good, healthy and normal for the people doing it?
Ok, that's my deep thought for the day...
BTW, Avantgo does not sync. For the most part the Avantgo data is one way, that is, clipped web pages out to your PDA.
Also note that Avantgo releasing the source code through mobilelink.org is less than it seems. It says that they have stopped releasing new versions and you get the impression from the site that there will be no more activity on open source MAL-sync.
Not that I don't agree that more options for syncing would be a great idea.
I've seen a lot of good comments... only ones I really disagree with are the Clearcase haters. If you fully understand and use all the features Clearcase is one best code management and development systems I've ever used. Some comments about Clearcase I didn't see mentioned... it is very picky about the OS patch level. Because it is highly integrated into the OS filesystem, the support for new OS versions lags each version by a few months. Also I think things like CVS perform better in a WAN and dialin environment. Clearcase kind of assumes a fast network and a LAN. I've seem some robustness issues with CVS. Not that it is buggy per se, but because it keeps the client state on the local client filesystem (in the CVS/ directories) it can be corrupted and then it does strange things. Developers can do some pretty strange things in their local environment and they just expect CVS to figure it out... and CVS gets confused sometimes. I have a growing appreciation for Perforce (P4). It gives you everything CVS does, it is robust and does branching and merging to rival Clearcase. The "atomic" checkins of P4 is very nice over CVS and the reporting of checkin history and other info is a lot faster and better than CVS.