The most important thing is tooling. Java has got everything checkboxed for use in Corporate Environments.
You want FIPS compliant crypto? You want static code analysis? You want tools to scan usage of open source libraries? You want tool to see if your developer copy pasted code from stack overflow? Everything is a Check Yes in Java, that too most of these tools are free and reputable. The Apache and OWASP foundations literally keep Java alive.
The only problematic thing is their new EOL policy for Java SE. They have effectively killed the usage of the "free" Java SE in environments with the new EOL policy. To put it simply, one will need to constantly update to the latest major version
http://www.oracle.com/technetw...
In addition, what many people aren't getting is that the last few years have been weird for many of these companies. The US Dollar is strengthening and at the same time their revenues are increasingly coming from non-US geographies. This combined effect makes their US dollar based profit numbers look very poor.
You cannot sell into markets in falling currency and spend for development in a region with strengthening currency. The US is in a weird position. Consumers benefit from a strong dollar, while jobs will suffer.
Not all compiler bugs cause a crash. A crash on the line is the ideal bug. I had to deal with a getc()/ungetc() bug that caused a wrong character to get inserted into the file stream. I spent days "printf-ing" the file parsing code. Once I found the bug, I was able to demonstrate it to the compiler guys in a 30 line program. That looked so easy to colleagues and the compiler guys after the fact.
brought Snake to millions of people.
built phones that could take on a tank. That didn't need to be upgraded every two years.
became the largest phone manufacturer in the world.
became the largest camera manufacturer in the world.
only to fall prey to a trojan horse called Stephen Elop.
Was using the same reliable phone, until I finally changed to an Android. Sigh.
Had to wait till Moto G came along to find something that was at-least half as good as my faithful Nokia 5230.
Russia caved in only because President Boris Yeltsin is desperate for Western aid to bail out his nation from the economic mess it is in. And the US had also threatened that it would stop all future space contracts with Russia including joint launches. So Yeltsin, who had pledged to uphold the deal when he visited India in January, instructed his negotiators to yield.
Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/us-blocks-critical-cryogenic-deal-forces-india-to-indigenise/1/302683.html
Windows _just_ works.
I began using Linux Mint a few months ago for learning. And I find it harder and harder to find latest software packaged for it, they all expect me to be on the latest release. With a release every 6 moths, that is not very good at upgrading, I think a lot of people would like to be on Windows. Where XP users (10+ yr old OS) are happily installing 99.99% of all available software in the latest versions without a hitch.
Of course, I am on Win 8 with ClassShell start menu. That is the max customization I need. AND nothing has broken due to me installing the start menu, and I know nothing will.
Windows has one of the BEST backward/forward compatibilities I have every seen for any OS. (Seen Solaris, Linux (RHEL/Ubuntu) and Windows of-course).
Any decently written software from 15 yrs ago will still install and run. Without requiring a exponentially increasing, cascading list of dependencies. On linux, if you are not on the latest version of the OS and are installing the latest version of the software, they will require specific versions of components where you have a newer version of the same and installing both simultaneously requires being a IT equivalent of a Gymnast.
HP's doomed Itanium was _ahead_ in the 64 bit race. It was one of the first 64 bit processors that gained reasonable market share.
The true reason for its demise is the lack of backwards compatibility. They decided to fix everything in one go: 64 bit, increased execution parallelism without programmer effort etc.
Years later AMD came up with x64 that was compatible with x32 and Intel quickly hoped on board as it saw the marked liked backward compatibility.
I have seen the Itaniums, if the program was slightly optimized, it would beat the daylights out of other architectures in terms of performance. Too bad that didn't count.
You are forgetting that 'urgent' critical & security patches don't wait for patch Tuesday. If a vulnerability is really needed, they will release it as soon as it passes regression testing.
This is fine.
Sometimes holding back on an update means that Administrators can plan for an update and be prepared to install it as soon as it is disclosed. Unlike OSS that just plonks it out. You cannot plan for their releases.
It is true. 7 days for 95% companies is unrealistic.
If you make big enterprise software to be sold to big vendors (SAP?), the clauses are simple: Any regression bug that is noticed and someone screams too loud => heads roll. So they have test-cycles that take weeks, for anything, however small the change is.
The problem is not with the development companies, the problem is with the user-companies. They buy software with a 90's mindset.
Which software today doesn't have bugs, security bugs, and regression bugs (something used to work, no longer works)? As long as the vendor is agreeing to quickly fix the regressions and the regressions are not data eating, they you should be okay.
The problem re-appears. The fix is temporary.
There is no problem with _other_ software. Basically someone wrote iTunes assuming no other software is running on the system and it locks up resources.
99% of Indians have to buy phones at full price, the concept of career subsidies is unheard of (except one carrier 5-10 years ago that decided to rip people off, thus destroying the very concept in people's minds. [Yes Reliance, I am looking at you]).
Again 75-80% consumers are on Prepaid SIMs. Not because they have bad credit (though many do), but because due to some twist of fate, prepaid was always cheaper.
This is what I pay for my Mobile access (I don't make many calls): $4 every 3 months. This is a minimum recharge to keep my connection alive.
It costs $0.02-$0.04 to talk anywhere in India, per minute. But my plan charges it per-second so if I talk for 6s (I reached safely, got to run, bye), I get charged $0.002.
This was only possible, because a previous government, decided to throw open the sector to competition. I have 3 Major and 3 minor players who are ready to hand me a mobile connection. i.e 6 players in every region. Until a few years ago, they were slitting each other's throats for getting customers.
We as a democracy, decided to throw out that government. Brought in a bunch of corrupt people (who promised us the moon) and those 6 players will soon turn to 2-3 players via mergers.
The ONLY WAY the US can have better mobile telephony, is to increase competition. Simple. Nothing beats competition.
The analogy is like saying "Car sales the lowest in a decade. The end of cars is in sight."
Yes sales will be low, but the PC will remain as a utility, like the Refrigerator. No longer the center of attention, but always needed and ubiquitous.
All the phones/tablets etc. need the PC as an anchor. Sure everything is moving to the "cloud", but all it will take is for a few accounts to get hacked big time and people losing their contacts forever to realize the "cloud" is not a foolproof solution.
You nailed it! I am from India and was thinking the exact same thing.
Now that the minister whose 'pet project' this scam was has moved onto another one, the new guy want's to shut it down. I am sure he will find some other less fancy money making scheme.
Note: This is called a money making scheme, not laundering. (Laundering is when you use a business to make your illegitimate money as legitimate as possible.)
(Sorry I haven't yet figured out how to up vote comments, or am I allowed to?)
Have you successfully tried restoring your acronis backup?
I have been "almost" burned by my backup software (not acronis) not understanding such underlying low level changes (such as encryption). The software only complained when I tried restoring!!
I live in India too and agree with all the statements, but disagree with the one that says Broadband is cheap here. You need to qualify that it is cheap due to restrictive caps placed on it. I am sure the $5 plan would be for 1GB/month.
$10 for 1MBPS, would be what 3-5GB.
And that too this is only in certain small pockets.
Slashdot Mirror
The most important thing is tooling. Java has got everything checkboxed for use in Corporate Environments. You want FIPS compliant crypto? You want static code analysis? You want tools to scan usage of open source libraries? You want tool to see if your developer copy pasted code from stack overflow? Everything is a Check Yes in Java, that too most of these tools are free and reputable. The Apache and OWASP foundations literally keep Java alive. The only problematic thing is their new EOL policy for Java SE. They have effectively killed the usage of the "free" Java SE in environments with the new EOL policy. To put it simply, one will need to constantly update to the latest major version http://www.oracle.com/technetw...
In addition, what many people aren't getting is that the last few years have been weird for many of these companies. The US Dollar is strengthening and at the same time their revenues are increasingly coming from non-US geographies. This combined effect makes their US dollar based profit numbers look very poor. You cannot sell into markets in falling currency and spend for development in a region with strengthening currency. The US is in a weird position. Consumers benefit from a strong dollar, while jobs will suffer.
and the program would crash on that line.
Not all compiler bugs cause a crash. A crash on the line is the ideal bug. I had to deal with a getc()/ungetc() bug that caused a wrong character to get inserted into the file stream. I spent days "printf-ing" the file parsing code. Once I found the bug, I was able to demonstrate it to the compiler guys in a 30 line program. That looked so easy to colleagues and the compiler guys after the fact.
brought Snake to millions of people.
built phones that could take on a tank. That didn't need to be upgraded every two years.
became the largest phone manufacturer in the world.
became the largest camera manufacturer in the world.
only to fall prey to a trojan horse called Stephen Elop.
Amen!
Was using the same reliable phone, until I finally changed to an Android. Sigh. Had to wait till Moto G came along to find something that was at-least half as good as my faithful Nokia 5230.
The United States prevented Russia...
I am very skeptical of that and of the links you have posted.
Since when does Russia give a shit what the US tells them to do?
This link will clarify your doubt. This is a very respectable Indian magazines (India Today) 1993 article: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/us-blocks-critical-cryogenic-deal-forces-india-to-indigenise/1/302683.html Quote from article:
Russia caved in only because President Boris Yeltsin is desperate for Western aid to bail out his nation from the economic mess it is in. And the US had also threatened that it would stop all future space contracts with Russia including joint launches. So Yeltsin, who had pledged to uphold the deal when he visited India in January, instructed his negotiators to yield. Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/us-blocks-critical-cryogenic-deal-forces-india-to-indigenise/1/302683.html
Windows _just_ works. I began using Linux Mint a few months ago for learning. And I find it harder and harder to find latest software packaged for it, they all expect me to be on the latest release. With a release every 6 moths, that is not very good at upgrading, I think a lot of people would like to be on Windows. Where XP users (10+ yr old OS) are happily installing 99.99% of all available software in the latest versions without a hitch. Of course, I am on Win 8 with ClassShell start menu. That is the max customization I need. AND nothing has broken due to me installing the start menu, and I know nothing will. Windows has one of the BEST backward/forward compatibilities I have every seen for any OS. (Seen Solaris, Linux (RHEL/Ubuntu) and Windows of-course). Any decently written software from 15 yrs ago will still install and run. Without requiring a exponentially increasing, cascading list of dependencies. On linux, if you are not on the latest version of the OS and are installing the latest version of the software, they will require specific versions of components where you have a newer version of the same and installing both simultaneously requires being a IT equivalent of a Gymnast.
Nevermind the fact that their laptops are the least-service-friendly machines I've ever laid a screwdriver on.
Are you confusing HP with Apple?
HP's doomed Itanium was _ahead_ in the 64 bit race. It was one of the first 64 bit processors that gained reasonable market share.
The true reason for its demise is the lack of backwards compatibility. They decided to fix everything in one go: 64 bit, increased execution parallelism without programmer effort etc.
Years later AMD came up with x64 that was compatible with x32 and Intel quickly hoped on board as it saw the marked liked backward compatibility.
I have seen the Itaniums, if the program was slightly optimized, it would beat the daylights out of other architectures in terms of performance. Too bad that didn't count.
You are forgetting that 'urgent' critical & security patches don't wait for patch Tuesday. If a vulnerability is really needed, they will release it as soon as it passes regression testing.
This is fine. Sometimes holding back on an update means that Administrators can plan for an update and be prepared to install it as soon as it is disclosed. Unlike OSS that just plonks it out. You cannot plan for their releases.
That said, I've never had a machine set not to use Automatic Updates reboot itself for an update without my intervention.
This is +1
The standards for *THE* leading IT company are always higher. Et tu, Brute? => His standard was set higher by Caesar :)
It is true. 7 days for 95% companies is unrealistic. If you make big enterprise software to be sold to big vendors (SAP?), the clauses are simple: Any regression bug that is noticed and someone screams too loud => heads roll. So they have test-cycles that take weeks, for anything, however small the change is. The problem is not with the development companies, the problem is with the user-companies. They buy software with a 90's mindset. Which software today doesn't have bugs, security bugs, and regression bugs (something used to work, no longer works)? As long as the vendor is agreeing to quickly fix the regressions and the regressions are not data eating, they you should be okay.
The problem re-appears. The fix is temporary. There is no problem with _other_ software. Basically someone wrote iTunes assuming no other software is running on the system and it locks up resources.
99% of Indians have to buy phones at full price, the concept of career subsidies is unheard of (except one carrier 5-10 years ago that decided to rip people off, thus destroying the very concept in people's minds. [Yes Reliance, I am looking at you]). Again 75-80% consumers are on Prepaid SIMs. Not because they have bad credit (though many do), but because due to some twist of fate, prepaid was always cheaper. This is what I pay for my Mobile access (I don't make many calls): $4 every 3 months. This is a minimum recharge to keep my connection alive. It costs $0.02-$0.04 to talk anywhere in India, per minute. But my plan charges it per-second so if I talk for 6s (I reached safely, got to run, bye), I get charged $0.002. This was only possible, because a previous government, decided to throw open the sector to competition. I have 3 Major and 3 minor players who are ready to hand me a mobile connection. i.e 6 players in every region. Until a few years ago, they were slitting each other's throats for getting customers. We as a democracy, decided to throw out that government. Brought in a bunch of corrupt people (who promised us the moon) and those 6 players will soon turn to 2-3 players via mergers. The ONLY WAY the US can have better mobile telephony, is to increase competition. Simple. Nothing beats competition.
The analogy is like saying "Car sales the lowest in a decade. The end of cars is in sight." Yes sales will be low, but the PC will remain as a utility, like the Refrigerator. No longer the center of attention, but always needed and ubiquitous. All the phones/tablets etc. need the PC as an anchor. Sure everything is moving to the "cloud", but all it will take is for a few accounts to get hacked big time and people losing their contacts forever to realize the "cloud" is not a foolproof solution.
You nailed it! I am from India and was thinking the exact same thing. Now that the minister whose 'pet project' this scam was has moved onto another one, the new guy want's to shut it down. I am sure he will find some other less fancy money making scheme. Note: This is called a money making scheme, not laundering. (Laundering is when you use a business to make your illegitimate money as legitimate as possible.) (Sorry I haven't yet figured out how to up vote comments, or am I allowed to?)
Have you successfully tried restoring your acronis backup? I have been "almost" burned by my backup software (not acronis) not understanding such underlying low level changes (such as encryption). The software only complained when I tried restoring!!
I live in India too and agree with all the statements, but disagree with the one that says Broadband is cheap here. You need to qualify that it is cheap due to restrictive caps placed on it. I am sure the $5 plan would be for 1GB/month. $10 for 1MBPS, would be what 3-5GB. And that too this is only in certain small pockets.