Rather convenient Slashvertising, comparing total downloads for AOO with unique downloads for LO.
This is why I stopped looking at news on television. This is why I stopped reading the local newspapers. Blatantly false information. Making this kind of error is not a mistake. It's an outright falsehood. It's also why for several years I've taken every article at Slashdot with a grain of salt because they link back to these kinds of articles and the submitter and editors for Slashdot don't catch it.
I am thankful that a number of readers have sharp eyes and catch this sort of stuff because although I catch a lot, I sure as hell can't catch everything. To jensend (with a great post) and everyone else who pointed the problems with the information given: thank you.
Alcohol is very social for Americans. I'm an American and I went out with my team after work one day and I was the only one not to have a beer. I had a soft drink. No one questioned my actions, but everyone noticed. They never teased me about it (they are a nice bunch of people after all), but I've gotten a rep as a person who does not drink... which is not true.
I drink at home primarily. I'm not an alcoholic. Never have been. The alcoholism gene does not run in my family. I do notice, however, that I'm impaired significantly by alcohol for about half an hour or so after having a small glass of something and I'm never quite sure how hard something will hit me unless I've had it a few times. I almost always get very tired after drinking to the point of nodding off. I'm apparently not very alcohol tolerant and I know better than to get behind the wheel of a car. I wonder how many others are like me but peer pressure gets them to drink. How many people really know their own tolerances?
I could go for this, if you could get it to be actually enforced. Selective enforcement ("i think drunk drivers are bad, so i'll bust them, but texting, hey, everyone does that, it can't be bad") is a problem. Fill in your own law-enforcement preferred and hated activities. Not only do you have to get police to agree to actually enforce per measured-risk, you have to get cranky old judges who liked things the way they were back then to all be on the same page.
What's the different between what the GP suggests and what we have today?
The U.S. constitution does not have that exception, which is why it is my belief that freedom of speech is better protected in the U.S.
Having just moved from the U.S. to Germany late last year (and being married to a German), I'm inclined to say on paper the U.S. is better protected, but in life that is probably not true. There's a lot of speech suppression in both the U.S. and Germany. Nowhere near as much as most other countries in the world, but plenty enough to make an argument that Germany may come out ahead of the U.S. on freedom of speech.
Don't forget the part where he is encouraging everyone to learn APIs and dabble in Python. Is he friggin' serious? Python wasn't designed for the casual computer user. I also like how he doesn't specify how much to learn or where to focus that learning. Just learn 2 languages. I started learning Java, C#, and Oracle years ago. There's always something new.
least of all some exec who thinks a tiny bit of coding knowledge will help you make estimates about how long a bit project will take
I read the article (and committed a sin, I know), and I had to laugh when I read this bit in the article. Most managers and most programmers can't estimate how long it will take for a small project much less a project of some size.
HairyFeet, you always state things so much better than I could. I don't know how many people say thank you to you for taking the time to express your opinions (and it must be a fair amount of time from the amount that you write), but I'd like to say it now: Thank you. You almost always save me a lot of trouble writing things I'd like to say. This kind of stuff needs to be said and you almost always do a great job.
I'm living in another country right now and learning a second language. I find it amazing how much my native language has shaped my view of the world and how much the other language has shaped the view of the people I'm now living amongst. If language can do that, what else does?
I like your citation. I was stating something to be humorous but now I'll tell you a true story now. My mom was a teacher for about 30 or 35 years in Louisiana. She most certainly had her fair share of trouble with students, administrations, etc., but she got through it. She retired and then a few years later she decided to do some substitute teaching for one of the better school systems in her area.
I have never heard her use the words "I quit" before when referring to teaching. Never. Not once. She told me that she quit doing substitute teaching -- quit in the middle of substituting for a teacher who was only going to be out for a few more days. She's done subbing before it's a piece of cake for her and I was stunned that she used the words "I quit" after only a week or so. Stunned that she would even think of it much less actually following through. Why? At one of the better school? The stories she brought back were awful. There was no learning. The kids would not settle down. One kid even mooned another kid right in the middle of class. At one of the better schools. WTF? I wish we could implement your suggestions in America. They may not be perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than what we have now.
We in 'Merica have ben working on edukating our kids for a long time. It figures our naybors to the nort are just now gettin round to thinkin bout edukation problems. Can't imagine what the rest of the world be like if your just now thinkin about such things. We have the best of the best of the best when it comes to edukation. You should try No Child Left Behind. Our dropout numbers have become non-existant. The number of failures have dropped. Our scores have improved year after year. Want to know why? Here's my citation as to why that is.
You and yer silly hocus pocus with yer 8 ways to make things better. Ha. You think you can do better than a bunch of politicians who have thought about this stuff for years? Where do you common folk come up wit yer stupid ideas? Yer ideas makes no sense. Where's yer citation?
Whether this is a problem or not depends largely on your personal political preferences and which party controls the white house at the moment...
The executive orders that go beyond the "internal operations of government" are largely a problem because of what I just emphasized in your quote. Based on what I read in your comments in numerous discussions, I know your head is screwed on straight, but I cannot tell you how many times I've had a conversation like the one that follows:
Friend or Family: Can you believe with $POLITICAL_PARTY_B did? They $SOMETHING_STUPID.
Me: Yeah. We voted them in. We really need to get a 3rd party in there. Actually, we need to get rid of the whole party mentality thing and just vote someone in who has morals and values.
Friend of Family: You didn't vote for $POLITICAL_PARTY_A? $POLITICAL_PARTY_B is so much worse than $POLITICAL_PARTY_A. That's why $POLITICAL_PARTY_B won.
Me: They are both the same. They both violate the same rights -- pick your amendment.
Friend of Family: But $POLITICAL_PARTY_B is so much worse than $POLITICAL_PARTY_A.
Me: They violate your rights differently and violate them at different rates, but averaged out, they are about the same.
Inevitably, at some point, the person I'm having the discussion with and I will have to agree to disagree. It's almost always the same conversation and it is always frustrating.
A simple if statement would catch this as well, right? But think of how often you do addition and subtraction (and everything else) throughout your code! Do you put an if around each one?
I use a program to automatically put a try-catch-finally statement around every line of code including my try-catch statements. When I'm contracting, no one can read my code so they'll have to hire me to fix or update anything. When I'm a permanent employee, then the number of lines of code I generate grows significantly so the bosses think I'm a great and productive programmer. Profit!
Upgrading software is a pure cost with zero income, so all you can argue is whether upgrading now will cost less than upgrading later.
Basically, you need to stop thinking like a techie and start thinking like a suit. They see technology in a very different light than we do.
Sometimes it's worse than that. Sometimes it's a no win scenario for everyone. If the upgrade doesn't happen, then one day the company is guaranteed that a critical app (or the hardware that it is on) will break and there is no ready replacement for it. Business suffers very badly... possibly even killing the business. If the upgrade is approved, then there is the risk that all this money you just sunk into a critical project will fail... possibly taking the business with it because of the cost involved or the transition had bugs which were not surmountable in time. The more often you upgrade, the more opportunity for catastrophic failure. The longer you wait to upgrade, the higher the probability of catastrophic failure compared to one in a shorter time frame.
It took seconds in the old system, but over 10 in the web based version
I'm a programmer. Besides crappy languages and the tool sets changing every five minutes, this is other top reason why I've resisted being a web programmer. It's too slow. I think a lot of hot-shot programmers don't understand how poor a tool web programming is and the real advantages to terminal programming, C++ programs, or (in my case) C# and Java programs. I'm not saying web programming doesn't have it's place. It's certainly earned a spot in the programming world, but I think it's over used and people try to shove a square peg into a round hole too often.
When a piece of software is integral to a business, and there is no simple upgrade path, sometimes the cheapest (and *correct*) option is to stay on an "outdated" platform.
This hits small business too. My wife is a business of one person (unless she needs me to work on her computer). She uses a $1000 piece of software to do her job. We've both purposely held off upgrading her. She's two versions behind and I'm worried about her not being able to port 15 years worth of data to the next version. Why do we keep her on it? Because the newer version not only reduced functionality but introduced bugs that destroy files. Permanently. There are no other pieces of software that can do what she needs. It's too specialized.
50% font size change? In a world with 24 inch monitors and 4 inch phones? No. As far as I'm concerned, the original goals of website design are being totally trashed by today's web pages: A webpage should be able to resize itself to the specific device without the server querying which browser or device it is on. Perhaps there should be a different layout between the 4 inch and 24 inch extremes, but then the user should decide which version they want -- not the developer.
Imagine grabbing a torrent and having the option of directly paying the band, or having the option of going to the band's homepage or storefront for physical media or memorabilia.
Everyone is talking music. I think this is pretty limiting. I think this has much bigger potential than just music. Movie trailers linked to movies. Book samples linked to books. Demo programs linked to programs. The opportunities are endless.
Yeah, but do you want your database server hosting databases for 2000 applications to be held back on an important upgrade because one of those applications uses a stored procedure that isn't ready for the next version? Virtualizing databases is usually a lot harder than virtualizing applications (well, if you want decent performance per dollar/etc). A build system that relies on GCC 3.0 is much less of a liability than an application that only runs on Oracle 8i.
If done right, this shouldn't be a concern. First off, no database should be housing 2000 applications. Secondly, every application should be able to be split apart from other applications on a database. When one database becomes overwhelmed, move some of your applications to a second database. (Hopefully, we're using the same definition of database. There are a couple of similar but different definitions from a technical point of view.) To upgrade, you can start a new database on a new machine and then migrate the different apps at different times. I've done that. I've also done the whole kit and kaboodle all at once. I prefer doing it piece meal because it is easier to migrate, but it requires more forethought -- something I've found most apps lacks. It's not harder to do and doesn't take longer... it just takes more forethought.
I'd go a step further and say simply never use stored procs. They really cement you into exactly one platform.
Disagree. No matter what language you pick to do your dirty work, you're still having a certain amount of lock-in. Pick what is best for the problem. For me, 99% of the time it will involve stored procs. It is closer to the database so it is faster. Queries can be better optimized and visually easier to debug. There is less I/O involvement as the data gets shuffled around for processing.
There will however be times when you have to put go atomic on someone, and if you have a good conscious, you'll always regret it even if it was necessary. I used to have a lot of anger issues when I was younger, and then became a recluse because it was scary to lose control that way. With a great deal of reflection and good friends I think I've a better balance than I've ever enjoyed in the past.
You're right. I think we do have a fair bit in common but with enough differences to be interesting.
You seem a thoughtful decent person. I hate seeing good people ground down by this world.
When I feel ground down, I step back without stepping out of the world and becoming reclusive. (Been there. Done that. Not pleasant. Not going to do it again.) Immerman responded to this post (with two separate comments) and suggested studying Buddism and / or some of the related philosophies. I've wondered if that would help me cope. I may try that in the coming years... not so much for the religion but for the philosophy. I think I've found a better balance in my current years than when I was younger, but I know I still have a lot to learn.
Rather seeing the tiny ripples my actions do have, and striving to have those ripples build upon themselves and extend their influence beyond my own sphere of perception into the broader world. Because in a very real sense those ripples are an aspect of me, and they do not stop being me simply because they mix and merge with other peoples ripples, rather the "me" simply flows seamlessly into the "us". As you learn to harmonize with the "us" rather than struggling against it your actions can become far more effective. Even if you wish to move the song in a completely unpopular direction, singing counter-point will stir a far more favorable response that shouting against the chorus.
This is one of the best images I've seen written. I understand what you say with my head, but my heart has a hard time accepting that. Your suggestion about studying some of the eastern philosophies in your other post should help me in my journey to hopefully one day fix that.
Have you ever tried practicing one of the Eastern philosophies? Buddhism, Taoism, etc?
No and I really should look more into this. I've thought it a lot over the years. Ironically, I studied martial arts for several years when I was young, but it was more about competition and self defense than philosophy. In all fairness, I wasn't ready for the philosophy back then. I think I am now. I'll start with your Alan Watts suggestion as I have no other good starting point other than google. (Just because I've thought about it doesn't mean I've actually done it.)
An excellent reply. I'm glad you took the time to reply and I'll kindly do the same. Your words are not falling on deaf ears.
I'll be frank:
1) Are you in fact right? Could there be a reason why the world at large rejects your views?
I ask myself this multiple times a day every day. Occam's razor, right? Still, if you are right, then many people on Slashdot are wrong because I agree with a number of regular posters on here.
2) Are you presenting your ideas in an attractive way? Maybe ask some of these people to provide you with some feedback?
This is probably one of the two most relevant things you've mentioned. I probably do have some sort of problem. What's very interesting is that I've taught classes in the past and they love the way I teach. Why can I teach a class but not always help someone see something that I do? I suspect the answer is because I see things in a way others do not and therefore it requires a lengthy explanation. (I've been accused multiple times of taking too long to explain something.) People don't like lengthy. They want short. Is that my problem or theirs? Is this reply lengthy? Or is it thorough? Will anyone read it?
3) Is this more about you than the world? Maybe get some counselling before this "world versus me" mentality becomes intractable.
It's probably because of where I was raised. If I didn't have that attitude growing up, I'd be dead. My neighborhood was not a nice place to be. Remember all those horrible things that happened in New Orleans during Katrina? Looting? Rioting? Murder? None of it surprised me. It was happening before Katrina. It still happens today. One of my many friends who still lives in New Orleans was beaten a couple of weeks ago by a neighbor. She will have months of facial reconstructive surgery. She lost part of her ear in the attack.
What's interesting is that despite the "world versus me" attitude, I also have a huge inner drive to make the world better. A lot of times, though, the world doesn't want to get better. That is frustrating. Very frustrating. Ironically, it feeds the "world versus me" attitude... which then fuels the drive to make the world better. It's a vicious cycle I have a hard time keeping in check. Living in New Orleans was killing me. Literally. It was eating me from the inside out because I could not change a city that bad. It was a good thing I left. It saved my life. I admire those that still live there and are able to do so without it hurting them too badly... although I always wonder how true that is.
4) Learn to be less bothered by the mundane and the things out of your control.
This is the other relevant thing. I've been told this multiple times by multiple people and it makes sense. I also know the day I allow myself to be less bothered by the mundane and things (supposedly) out of my control, that is the day I give up on people and on myself. That is the day I die. I cannot let that happen, my friend. I love life and I love people too much for that happen. It hurts me when I see people make mistakes that I know they could have avoided. I was once told I have a high empathy for others. I think that is true.
You really want to be careful to avoid this "Mr. Nice Guy" thing. The mention of good people being turned bad smells of psychosis or at least only in the last line of a long post did you in any way acknowledge possible faults on your side.
I was merely tying in what I talked about into the quote I had copied and pasted. Is cheating ok? Is it morally acceptable? Sometimes it is. Most of the time, people use excuses so they can cheat. I had a guy copy my homework the other day. It was not for a grade. He didn't have time to do the weekend before. Was that ok or was it cheating? Was it morally acceptable? I let it slide. That's his life. There is truth to my statement
Then there is the other possibility. String the names of the files together and see if it means something. Encrypted file meant to be broken? Password hidden in the text of the characters? Secret message hidden in there? Maybe it's not quite as random as we thought. I'm far from being an expert in anything like this, but I could see Randall doing something like this just to mess with our heads. I wish I were as talented as him!
Slashdot Mirror
Rather convenient Slashvertising, comparing total downloads for AOO with unique downloads for LO.
This is why I stopped looking at news on television. This is why I stopped reading the local newspapers. Blatantly false information. Making this kind of error is not a mistake. It's an outright falsehood. It's also why for several years I've taken every article at Slashdot with a grain of salt because they link back to these kinds of articles and the submitter and editors for Slashdot don't catch it.
I am thankful that a number of readers have sharp eyes and catch this sort of stuff because although I catch a lot, I sure as hell can't catch everything. To jensend (with a great post) and everyone else who pointed the problems with the information given: thank you.
What is this? Are all Americans all alcoholics?!
Alcohol is very social for Americans. I'm an American and I went out with my team after work one day and I was the only one not to have a beer. I had a soft drink. No one questioned my actions, but everyone noticed. They never teased me about it (they are a nice bunch of people after all), but I've gotten a rep as a person who does not drink... which is not true.
I drink at home primarily. I'm not an alcoholic. Never have been. The alcoholism gene does not run in my family. I do notice, however, that I'm impaired significantly by alcohol for about half an hour or so after having a small glass of something and I'm never quite sure how hard something will hit me unless I've had it a few times. I almost always get very tired after drinking to the point of nodding off. I'm apparently not very alcohol tolerant and I know better than to get behind the wheel of a car. I wonder how many others are like me but peer pressure gets them to drink. How many people really know their own tolerances?
Numbers are unimportant to me. Only safety.
I could go for this, if you could get it to be actually enforced. Selective enforcement ("i think drunk drivers are bad, so i'll bust them, but texting, hey, everyone does that, it can't be bad") is a problem. Fill in your own law-enforcement preferred and hated activities. Not only do you have to get police to agree to actually enforce per measured-risk, you have to get cranky old judges who liked things the way they were back then to all be on the same page.
What's the different between what the GP suggests and what we have today?
The U.S. constitution does not have that exception, which is why it is my belief that freedom of speech is better protected in the U.S.
Having just moved from the U.S. to Germany late last year (and being married to a German), I'm inclined to say on paper the U.S. is better protected, but in life that is probably not true. There's a lot of speech suppression in both the U.S. and Germany. Nowhere near as much as most other countries in the world, but plenty enough to make an argument that Germany may come out ahead of the U.S. on freedom of speech.
Don't forget the part where he is encouraging everyone to learn APIs and dabble in Python. Is he friggin' serious? Python wasn't designed for the casual computer user. I also like how he doesn't specify how much to learn or where to focus that learning. Just learn 2 languages. I started learning Java, C#, and Oracle years ago. There's always something new.
least of all some exec who thinks a tiny bit of coding knowledge will help you make estimates about how long a bit project will take
I read the article (and committed a sin, I know), and I had to laugh when I read this bit in the article. Most managers and most programmers can't estimate how long it will take for a small project much less a project of some size.
HairyFeet, you always state things so much better than I could. I don't know how many people say thank you to you for taking the time to express your opinions (and it must be a fair amount of time from the amount that you write), but I'd like to say it now: Thank you. You almost always save me a lot of trouble writing things I'd like to say. This kind of stuff needs to be said and you almost always do a great job.
I'm living in another country right now and learning a second language. I find it amazing how much my native language has shaped my view of the world and how much the other language has shaped the view of the people I'm now living amongst. If language can do that, what else does?
I like your citation. I was stating something to be humorous but now I'll tell you a true story now. My mom was a teacher for about 30 or 35 years in Louisiana. She most certainly had her fair share of trouble with students, administrations, etc., but she got through it. She retired and then a few years later she decided to do some substitute teaching for one of the better school systems in her area.
I have never heard her use the words "I quit" before when referring to teaching. Never. Not once. She told me that she quit doing substitute teaching -- quit in the middle of substituting for a teacher who was only going to be out for a few more days. She's done subbing before it's a piece of cake for her and I was stunned that she used the words "I quit" after only a week or so. Stunned that she would even think of it much less actually following through. Why? At one of the better school? The stories she brought back were awful. There was no learning. The kids would not settle down. One kid even mooned another kid right in the middle of class. At one of the better schools. WTF? I wish we could implement your suggestions in America. They may not be perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than what we have now.
We in 'Merica have ben working on edukating our kids for a long time. It figures our naybors to the nort are just now gettin round to thinkin bout edukation problems. Can't imagine what the rest of the world be like if your just now thinkin about such things. We have the best of the best of the best when it comes to edukation. You should try No Child Left Behind. Our dropout numbers have become non-existant. The number of failures have dropped. Our scores have improved year after year. Want to know why? Here's my citation as to why that is.
You and yer silly hocus pocus with yer 8 ways to make things better. Ha. You think you can do better than a bunch of politicians who have thought about this stuff for years? Where do you common folk come up wit yer stupid ideas? Yer ideas makes no sense. Where's yer citation?
Whether this is a problem or not depends largely on your personal political preferences and which party controls the white house at the moment...
The executive orders that go beyond the "internal operations of government" are largely a problem because of what I just emphasized in your quote. Based on what I read in your comments in numerous discussions, I know your head is screwed on straight, but I cannot tell you how many times I've had a conversation like the one that follows:
Friend or Family: Can you believe with $POLITICAL_PARTY_B did? They $SOMETHING_STUPID.
Me: Yeah. We voted them in. We really need to get a 3rd party in there. Actually, we need to get rid of the whole party mentality thing and just vote someone in who has morals and values.
Friend of Family: You didn't vote for $POLITICAL_PARTY_A? $POLITICAL_PARTY_B is so much worse than $POLITICAL_PARTY_A. That's why $POLITICAL_PARTY_B won.
Me: They are both the same. They both violate the same rights -- pick your amendment.
Friend of Family: But $POLITICAL_PARTY_B is so much worse than $POLITICAL_PARTY_A.
Me: They violate your rights differently and violate them at different rates, but averaged out, they are about the same.
Inevitably, at some point, the person I'm having the discussion with and I will have to agree to disagree. It's almost always the same conversation and it is always frustrating.
A simple if statement would catch this as well, right? But think of how often you do addition and subtraction (and everything else) throughout your code! Do you put an if around each one?
I use a program to automatically put a try-catch-finally statement around every line of code including my try-catch statements. When I'm contracting, no one can read my code so they'll have to hire me to fix or update anything. When I'm a permanent employee, then the number of lines of code I generate grows significantly so the bosses think I'm a great and productive programmer. Profit!
Why do you think the quality of life has improved so much over the past decades?
Have you seen reality TV, SyFy, or the History channel these days?
Upgrading software is a pure cost with zero income, so all you can argue is whether upgrading now will cost less than upgrading later.
Basically, you need to stop thinking like a techie and start thinking like a suit. They see technology in a very different light than we do.
Sometimes it's worse than that. Sometimes it's a no win scenario for everyone. If the upgrade doesn't happen, then one day the company is guaranteed that a critical app (or the hardware that it is on) will break and there is no ready replacement for it. Business suffers very badly... possibly even killing the business. If the upgrade is approved, then there is the risk that all this money you just sunk into a critical project will fail... possibly taking the business with it because of the cost involved or the transition had bugs which were not surmountable in time. The more often you upgrade, the more opportunity for catastrophic failure. The longer you wait to upgrade, the higher the probability of catastrophic failure compared to one in a shorter time frame.
It took seconds in the old system, but over 10 in the web based version
I'm a programmer. Besides crappy languages and the tool sets changing every five minutes, this is other top reason why I've resisted being a web programmer. It's too slow. I think a lot of hot-shot programmers don't understand how poor a tool web programming is and the real advantages to terminal programming, C++ programs, or (in my case) C# and Java programs. I'm not saying web programming doesn't have it's place. It's certainly earned a spot in the programming world, but I think it's over used and people try to shove a square peg into a round hole too often.
When a piece of software is integral to a business, and there is no simple upgrade path, sometimes the cheapest (and *correct*) option is to stay on an "outdated" platform.
This hits small business too. My wife is a business of one person (unless she needs me to work on her computer). She uses a $1000 piece of software to do her job. We've both purposely held off upgrading her. She's two versions behind and I'm worried about her not being able to port 15 years worth of data to the next version. Why do we keep her on it? Because the newer version not only reduced functionality but introduced bugs that destroy files. Permanently. There are no other pieces of software that can do what she needs. It's too specialized.
50% font size change? In a world with 24 inch monitors and 4 inch phones? No. As far as I'm concerned, the original goals of website design are being totally trashed by today's web pages: A webpage should be able to resize itself to the specific device without the server querying which browser or device it is on. Perhaps there should be a different layout between the 4 inch and 24 inch extremes, but then the user should decide which version they want -- not the developer.
Imagine grabbing a torrent and having the option of directly paying the band, or having the option of going to the band's homepage or storefront for physical media or memorabilia.
Everyone is talking music. I think this is pretty limiting. I think this has much bigger potential than just music. Movie trailers linked to movies. Book samples linked to books. Demo programs linked to programs. The opportunities are endless.
Yeah, but do you want your database server hosting databases for 2000 applications to be held back on an important upgrade because one of those applications uses a stored procedure that isn't ready for the next version? Virtualizing databases is usually a lot harder than virtualizing applications (well, if you want decent performance per dollar/etc). A build system that relies on GCC 3.0 is much less of a liability than an application that only runs on Oracle 8i.
If done right, this shouldn't be a concern. First off, no database should be housing 2000 applications. Secondly, every application should be able to be split apart from other applications on a database. When one database becomes overwhelmed, move some of your applications to a second database. (Hopefully, we're using the same definition of database. There are a couple of similar but different definitions from a technical point of view.) To upgrade, you can start a new database on a new machine and then migrate the different apps at different times. I've done that. I've also done the whole kit and kaboodle all at once. I prefer doing it piece meal because it is easier to migrate, but it requires more forethought -- something I've found most apps lacks. It's not harder to do and doesn't take longer... it just takes more forethought.
I'd go a step further and say simply never use stored procs. They really cement you into exactly one platform.
Disagree. No matter what language you pick to do your dirty work, you're still having a certain amount of lock-in. Pick what is best for the problem. For me, 99% of the time it will involve stored procs. It is closer to the database so it is faster. Queries can be better optimized and visually easier to debug. There is less I/O involvement as the data gets shuffled around for processing.
think we have a fair bit in common
There will however be times when you have to put go atomic on someone, and if you have a good conscious, you'll always regret it even if it was necessary. I used to have a lot of anger issues when I was younger, and then became a recluse because it was scary to lose control that way. With a great deal of reflection and good friends I think I've a better balance than I've ever enjoyed in the past.
You're right. I think we do have a fair bit in common but with enough differences to be interesting.
You seem a thoughtful decent person. I hate seeing good people ground down by this world.
When I feel ground down, I step back without stepping out of the world and becoming reclusive. (Been there. Done that. Not pleasant. Not going to do it again.) Immerman responded to this post (with two separate comments) and suggested studying Buddism and / or some of the related philosophies. I've wondered if that would help me cope. I may try that in the coming years... not so much for the religion but for the philosophy. I think I've found a better balance in my current years than when I was younger, but I know I still have a lot to learn.
Rather seeing the tiny ripples my actions do have, and striving to have those ripples build upon themselves and extend their influence beyond my own sphere of perception into the broader world. Because in a very real sense those ripples are an aspect of me, and they do not stop being me simply because they mix and merge with other peoples ripples, rather the "me" simply flows seamlessly into the "us". As you learn to harmonize with the "us" rather than struggling against it your actions can become far more effective. Even if you wish to move the song in a completely unpopular direction, singing counter-point will stir a far more favorable response that shouting against the chorus.
This is one of the best images I've seen written. I understand what you say with my head, but my heart has a hard time accepting that. Your suggestion about studying some of the eastern philosophies in your other post should help me in my journey to hopefully one day fix that.
Have you ever tried practicing one of the Eastern philosophies? Buddhism, Taoism, etc?
No and I really should look more into this. I've thought it a lot over the years. Ironically, I studied martial arts for several years when I was young, but it was more about competition and self defense than philosophy. In all fairness, I wasn't ready for the philosophy back then. I think I am now. I'll start with your Alan Watts suggestion as I have no other good starting point other than google. (Just because I've thought about it doesn't mean I've actually done it.)
Thank you.
I'll be frank:
1) Are you in fact right? Could there be a reason why the world at large rejects your views?
I ask myself this multiple times a day every day. Occam's razor, right? Still, if you are right, then many people on Slashdot are wrong because I agree with a number of regular posters on here.
2) Are you presenting your ideas in an attractive way? Maybe ask some of these people to provide you with some feedback?
This is probably one of the two most relevant things you've mentioned. I probably do have some sort of problem. What's very interesting is that I've taught classes in the past and they love the way I teach. Why can I teach a class but not always help someone see something that I do? I suspect the answer is because I see things in a way others do not and therefore it requires a lengthy explanation. (I've been accused multiple times of taking too long to explain something.) People don't like lengthy. They want short. Is that my problem or theirs? Is this reply lengthy? Or is it thorough? Will anyone read it?
3) Is this more about you than the world? Maybe get some counselling before this "world versus me" mentality becomes intractable.
It's probably because of where I was raised. If I didn't have that attitude growing up, I'd be dead. My neighborhood was not a nice place to be. Remember all those horrible things that happened in New Orleans during Katrina? Looting? Rioting? Murder? None of it surprised me. It was happening before Katrina. It still happens today. One of my many friends who still lives in New Orleans was beaten a couple of weeks ago by a neighbor. She will have months of facial reconstructive surgery. She lost part of her ear in the attack.
What's interesting is that despite the "world versus me" attitude, I also have a huge inner drive to make the world better. A lot of times, though, the world doesn't want to get better. That is frustrating. Very frustrating. Ironically, it feeds the "world versus me" attitude... which then fuels the drive to make the world better. It's a vicious cycle I have a hard time keeping in check. Living in New Orleans was killing me. Literally. It was eating me from the inside out because I could not change a city that bad. It was a good thing I left. It saved my life. I admire those that still live there and are able to do so without it hurting them too badly... although I always wonder how true that is.
4) Learn to be less bothered by the mundane and the things out of your control.
This is the other relevant thing. I've been told this multiple times by multiple people and it makes sense. I also know the day I allow myself to be less bothered by the mundane and things (supposedly) out of my control, that is the day I give up on people and on myself. That is the day I die. I cannot let that happen, my friend. I love life and I love people too much for that happen. It hurts me when I see people make mistakes that I know they could have avoided. I was once told I have a high empathy for others. I think that is true.
You really want to be careful to avoid this "Mr. Nice Guy" thing. The mention of good people being turned bad smells of psychosis or at least only in the last line of a long post did you in any way acknowledge possible faults on your side.
I was merely tying in what I talked about into the quote I had copied and pasted. Is cheating ok? Is it morally acceptable? Sometimes it is. Most of the time, people use excuses so they can cheat. I had a guy copy my homework the other day. It was not for a grade. He didn't have time to do the weekend before. Was that ok or was it cheating? Was it morally acceptable? I let it slide. That's his life. There is truth to my statement
Then there is the other possibility. String the names of the files together and see if it means something. Encrypted file meant to be broken? Password hidden in the text of the characters? Secret message hidden in there? Maybe it's not quite as random as we thought. I'm far from being an expert in anything like this, but I could see Randall doing something like this just to mess with our heads. I wish I were as talented as him!