- - - - - The eye-rolling comes less from the technical challenges than from the bureaucratic ones. - - - - -
John Galt forbid that human beings should have any say in what happens in their physical, environmental, or economic environment through the entity they have created to provide such oversight, their government. Next you'll be telling me that Uber should be held responsible for flat-out breaking the law.
By the way, how's that self-driving car thing coming? Been tested on a snowpacked street in Boston with children playing on snowbanks yet?
- - - - - The article's author believes Microsoft's real game is "to be the soup-to-nuts provider of Internet of Things devices, software, and consulting services to zillions of local and national governments around the world - - - - -
That's good news: the so-called "internet of things" needed to be knocked back 20 years until society can get a handle on security and accountability. Microsoft is just the organization to provide the necessary retrograde motion.
= = = Should I use the Samsung Camera? Or the Android Camera? = = =
That makes no sense whatsoever. I have an iPhone and I have 8 or 10 camera apps. Each one has strengths and weaknesses, including the standard Apple Camera app. In fact over the last 3 releases Apple has been opening up more of the camera APIs and functions to app developers, resulting in more camera apps rather than fewer.
IBM still sells/supports their compiler, or at least did the last time I checked a couple of years ago. I doubt it is used for anything other than support of very old legacy code. All the PC compilers are gone now I think. I wonder if anyone at Cornell even remembers PL/C?
Erlang was originally developed to facilitate the creation of provably correct real-time communications systems. The argument (all the way in the dim depths of 2014 here on Slashdot IIRC) is that in today's world all software will eventually be connected to the Internet and both its interactions and its databases may be located at multiple remote unreliable locations/links, and hence all systems can be (and then proceed to should be) modeled as real-time communications systems requiring provably correct software.
I'm not saying that Erlang has the features needed to create general-purpose business systems, nor am I an advocate of the language, but that's the argument that is out there. Or was 3 years ago; now we have moved on to Rust. Somewhere down at the bottom of the pile is poor old ALGOL...
Yes, PL/I was out there in the 1965 time frame. Many of what we consider "modern" languages were developed in part to avoid the horror and expense of using PL/I. (keeping in mind that most of the programming language design guys and gals from 1955-1975 knew and interacted with one another). Also similar to Ada in that the in retrospect it is hard to see what the perception of horror was all about. [disclosure: I personally always liked PL/I]
= = = Hire competent C developers and you should be good to go. Hire dumb-asses and sure the future doesn't look bright. = = =
I've met a lot of very competent cabinetmakers over the years, but of those who use circular saws 80% are missing at least the tip of one finger. The SawStop technology seems like a good idea to me, although many deride it as "sissy stuff".
In any case, the history of the last 30 years shows that you really can't depend only on having hired the "competent" programmers - there aren't enough of them, it is hard to determine who is/isn't until it is too late, and anyone can make a mistake.
Two other issues:
1) having lost the race, there is no longer a viable ecosystem of Ada compilers, tools, etc outside of a few specialized (and very expensive) aerospace and DoD environments. That creates a large chicken-and-egg barrier to its use
2) Back in the day Dijkstra strapped on the 10 most powerful swords and warhammers in human mythology and went after Ada full force. At the time his criticisms seemed on point, but with knowledge of what came after (e.g. Java) his objections were perhaps overly strong. Be that as it may the damage was done and the reputation of Ada never recovered.
= = = Today I am seriously suggesting that when engineers refactor existing C code, especially parsers and other input handlers, they replace it -- slowly, bit by bit -- with Rust. = = =
Or Erlang. Or Ada. Or PL/I. Or... or any of the 23 languages/environments that have been proposed since the Ada/Pascal/C split circa 1975. Yet none of these proposals have taken root. Why not? Seems to me that is just as important a research question as developing Yet Another Correct Compiler for the Unbreakable Language.
= = = The fact that some of the earliest backers now want to reduce their stakes suggests the scandals and other troubles this year have taken a toll. = = =
There's also the minor problem that no one can figure out how Uber could ever earn a return on the money invested. That might be a reason some of the early investors are looking for new suckers.
= = = FYI, I have lived in large metro areas with blistering crime rates for my entire life = = =
Note that other than a few unfortunate smaller cities and a specific region of one larger city (the south side of Chicago), violent crime rates in the United States have been plunging since 1990 and now stand at 40% of the modern peak in 1980. I'm partial to the "no more lead in gasoline" theory myself, but whatever the reason living in the US is safer than it probably ever has been and actually not bad by the standards of the rest of the developed world.
= = = has stated that they absolutely refuse to use the EMV chip, and only will do swipe, citing speed over security = = =
I'm surprised that more high-volume retail locations haven't done the same: the chip is painfully slow compared to the swipe strip, and if you are processing 100s per hour it can really put a crimp in customer flow.
(for those who aren't really old like me, that is the sound of an old-fashioned electric football game when the goalposts come unclipped and start moving)
I'm eagerly awaiting the Breitbart crowd roaring after this clear violation of national security law and document classification regulations:
= = = https://apnews.com/b1097747055...
The outgoing White House also became concerned about the Trump team’s handling of classified information. After learning that highly sensitive documents from a secure room at the transition’s Washington headquarters were being copied and removed from the facility, = = =
= = = Nobody has published polling statistics showing how many Clinton supporters reversed course because of the original e-mail investigation or the announcements made just 11 days before the election. If polling statistics demonstrating Clinton lost a significant number of voters because of the e-mail investigation I am sure the information would have been trotted out by now. = = =
= = = eah the NY times article was scaremongering and partially wrong but the 'bad' thing Uber did here was break the Apple TOS which say developers should not be fingerprinting users devices.= = =
Who would have ever thought that a company founded on the principle [sic] of breaking the law in multiple jurisdictions would ignore and circumvent the terms and conditions, to which they agreed, of an entity with which they do business. Whodathunkait.
"The Information" is a subscription-only technology new site/service that is staffed by some of the heavy-duty technology journalists who lost their long-time traditional media jobs during the Great Recession. It tends to be on the well-connected-but-conservative side of the technology news world.
Slashdot Mirror
John Galt forbid that human beings should have any say in what happens in their physical, environmental, or economic environment through the entity they have created to provide such oversight, their government. Next you'll be telling me that Uber should be held responsible for flat-out breaking the law.
By the way, how's that self-driving car thing coming? Been tested on a snowpacked street in Boston with children playing on snowbanks yet?
That's good news: the so-called "internet of things" needed to be knocked back 20 years until society can get a handle on security and accountability. Microsoft is just the organization to provide the necessary retrograde motion.
That makes no sense whatsoever. I have an iPhone and I have 8 or 10 camera apps. Each one has strengths and weaknesses, including the standard Apple Camera app. In fact over the last 3 releases Apple has been opening up more of the camera APIs and functions to app developers, resulting in more camera apps rather than fewer.
Doesn't strike me a rant at all - a reasonably thought about the underlying question IMHO
sPh
DB: HAL, I think I've detected a logic error in the main core.
HAL: I'll get right on that Dave
There you go: available for both z/OS and AIX!
http://www-03.ibm.com/software...
IBM still sells/supports their compiler, or at least did the last time I checked a couple of years ago. I doubt it is used for anything other than support of very old legacy code. All the PC compilers are gone now I think. I wonder if anyone at Cornell even remembers PL/C?
Which is what I said ;-)
Always how it is in the aerospace and DoD worlds!
Erlang was originally developed to facilitate the creation of provably correct real-time communications systems. The argument (all the way in the dim depths of 2014 here on Slashdot IIRC) is that in today's world all software will eventually be connected to the Internet and both its interactions and its databases may be located at multiple remote unreliable locations/links, and hence all systems can be (and then proceed to should be) modeled as real-time communications systems requiring provably correct software.
I'm not saying that Erlang has the features needed to create general-purpose business systems, nor am I an advocate of the language, but that's the argument that is out there. Or was 3 years ago; now we have moved on to Rust. Somewhere down at the bottom of the pile is poor old ALGOL...
Yes, PL/I was out there in the 1965 time frame. Many of what we consider "modern" languages were developed in part to avoid the horror and expense of using PL/I. (keeping in mind that most of the programming language design guys and gals from 1955-1975 knew and interacted with one another). Also similar to Ada in that the in retrospect it is hard to see what the perception of horror was all about. [disclosure: I personally always liked PL/I]
That's one. How many industrial-quality C compilers are on the market and what is their price range?
I've met a lot of very competent cabinetmakers over the years, but of those who use circular saws 80% are missing at least the tip of one finger. The SawStop technology seems like a good idea to me, although many deride it as "sissy stuff".
In any case, the history of the last 30 years shows that you really can't depend only on having hired the "competent" programmers - there aren't enough of them, it is hard to determine who is/isn't until it is too late, and anyone can make a mistake.
sPh
Two other issues:
1) having lost the race, there is no longer a viable ecosystem of Ada compilers, tools, etc outside of a few specialized (and very expensive) aerospace and DoD environments. That creates a large chicken-and-egg barrier to its use
2) Back in the day Dijkstra strapped on the 10 most powerful swords and warhammers in human mythology and went after Ada full force. At the time his criticisms seemed on point, but with knowledge of what came after (e.g. Java) his objections were perhaps overly strong. Be that as it may the damage was done and the reputation of Ada never recovered.
sPh
Or Erlang. Or Ada. Or PL/I. Or... or any of the 23 languages/environments that have been proposed since the Ada/Pascal/C split circa 1975. Yet none of these proposals have taken root. Why not? Seems to me that is just as important a research question as developing Yet Another Correct Compiler for the Unbreakable Language.
sPh
There's also the minor problem that no one can figure out how Uber could ever earn a return on the money invested. That might be a reason some of the early investors are looking for new suckers.
Note that other than a few unfortunate smaller cities and a specific region of one larger city (the south side of Chicago), violent crime rates in the United States have been plunging since 1990 and now stand at 40% of the modern peak in 1980. I'm partial to the "no more lead in gasoline" theory myself, but whatever the reason living in the US is safer than it probably ever has been and actually not bad by the standards of the rest of the developed world.
The archivists searching for the 22 million missing e-mails from George W. Bush's administration aren't doing too badly either.
sPh
So what exactly does it do then?
I'm surprised that more high-volume retail locations haven't done the same: the chip is painfully slow compared to the swipe strip, and if you are processing 100s per hour it can really put a crimp in customer flow.
Bzzzz.... bzzzzz.... bzzzz
(for those who aren't really old like me, that is the sound of an old-fashioned electric football game when the goalposts come unclipped and start moving)
I'm eagerly awaiting the Breitbart crowd roaring after this clear violation of national security law and document classification regulations:
Nope, nobody:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/fe...
If Uber breaks the law, and only Lyft hears it, has it made a sound?
Who would have ever thought that a company founded on the principle [sic] of breaking the law in multiple jurisdictions would ignore and circumvent the terms and conditions, to which they agreed, of an entity with which they do business. Whodathunkait.
Donald Trump? Is that you?
"The Information" is a subscription-only technology new site/service that is staffed by some of the heavy-duty technology journalists who lost their long-time traditional media jobs during the Great Recession. It tends to be on the well-connected-but-conservative side of the technology news world.
sPh