No. This all started with her telling me she was afraid of wierdos on the Internet, and she no longer wanted to do a blog. We tried basic authentication to keep out people she doesn't know, but she got sick of having to hand out the username and password to all her friends, who can't remember an alphanumeric password to save their lives and can't always read their own handwriting.
She asked me why we couldn't let people put in their own names and passwords, so I showed her how to build a page that does this. Then we built an admin screen for user accounts, and she started to get the idea about if-then statements. Her next question was why can't she make it so everybody sees some stories but only some people see other stories. Then it was why can't we make it so some people see pictures and not others.
What we ended up with was her asking if everything could be turned on and turned off, and I said yes. I explained to her about recursion and how a function can call itself, and before long we had an n-level explicit permissions system under development. It probably took 2 months of coding, mostly on the weekends and with weekly milestones.
At each phase, this was her thinking, I tried just to help her write the code and understand what the control structures do. If you want, I can ask her to tell the story. She tells it far better than I could.
I'm doing my best, but the possibility that a boy may try to touch her someday persists. For my part, aside from educating her in how to write code, I am also investing in dental braces, science camp, violin lessons, tae kwon do school, and tutors in several languages. I plan on making this girl so smart and self-confident she will be 21 before any of that stuff happens.
She was concerned about people looking at pictures of her who she doesn't know. We drew up a scheme that allows her to assign permissions to friends based on the username and password they provide.
She also became concerned about people reading personal stories, ones where she mentions places she has been or where she lives.
The system we worked out is a recursive explicit explicit permissions system where she can define n levels of security. For instance, in a given section of the blog, she can say whether or not users have access. Then she can say whether or not users have access to individual stories in the section. Then she can say whether or not users have access to pictures in the story. And so on and so forth. When there is something else in a section, say a Word document stored as part of a story, she creates a new permission assigned to that specific item and shares it with other people.
For my part, I built a grouping mechanism that allows her to assign permissions to a number of users all at once.
My daughter (who is 8) has her own blog. She was concerned about security, articulated to me a permissions system she would like to implement, and we wrote that system together.
Surprisingly enough, I brought that system to work with me today and we are using an expanded version of it for an enterprise system.
As a single father, I have been taking care of my daughter on my own for over 7 years now. I often think I could not take care of her by myself were it not for my job as a developer.
The biggest advantage has been in terms of salary, which has allowed me to afford private schools, material things and education which otherwise would have been hard to afford. I make more even than some of my friends in the banking industry, although their long term salary prospects are probably higher than my own.
The ability to work from home has been the second largest advantage. There have been days my daughter has been sick or on vacation where I could not physically be at work but have remained productive. Having a cable modem has made it so I am available to write code 24x7 and not be tied to a desk somewhere. Along with this goes the possibility of freelancing, which I have often had to do when the car breaks, an unexpected bill comes up, or when I just feel like taking a vacation.
The third biggest advantage is the social aspects of having a child. The relationships I have developed with other parents at my daughter's school have led to endless opportunities as a programmer, and I actually once got a job through another parent.
The bottom line is having a child is no shopstopper, even in terms of massive work schedules. I can work all day, go home and relax for four hours with the child until it is time for bed, then stay up and write code all night if I feel like. The fact is coding and parenting have many similarities - you are constantly issuing instructions and trying to find out why they are not producing the expected results.
Oh, how could this be a viable open source project without your support, Overly Critical Guy? People might as well write Shareaza off completely since you're not going to bother.
Your words set me straight. I am on my way to the police right now and will turn myself in for all those nefarious mp3s. Ensuring fair play for copyright owners (and massive corporate profits gained through questionable means) is what being a good corporate consumer is all about.
Several recent reports have come out noting the rise of female participation in MMUG's, I seem to remember Everquest being mentioned but I am not sure of the particulars. Anyways, there is a lot of growth in this area. While you did mention she is not into computer games, perhaps one avenue you want to explore is finding games that are popular with women and trying to introduce her to games that way.
Notice of full disclosure: I broke up with one girlfriend after the release of Warcraft II for the Mac, it was just such a cool game and she really did talk too much while I was TRYING TO DESTROY THE PUNY HUMANS.
"If You institute patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed."
This is what has people's feathers ruffled. Hmmm. Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but...
The problem with patent revocation, in this sense, is that if someone builds a product on top of a work having an Apache 2.0 license, then goes and patents his own work, that person is in a bind.
If he finds his patented work incorporated into the original project without his consent and sues over it, that person suddenly loses the patent license to the original work. It's like putting 2 trains aimed at each other on the same track, except that one of them (the patent holders) is made out of paper.
I do not see how this revocation clause incourages the development of better software. If someone does have a novel idea that they would like to market, they cannot choose to build on anything using the Apache 2.0 license without exposing themselves to a huge legal loophole.
> > If you and a friend have a project that will > > cost $1200 but will net you $1800 in a year, you > > each stand to gain $900 minus your investment. > > But you only have $800 total. If you get another > > friend in on it, all three of you will only net > > $200 apiece ($600 - $400). If you get $400 debt > > at 5%, then the two of you will make $1800 - > > $420 (debt + interest) = $1380 / 2 = $690 - $400 > > = $290.
Perhaps it is just the way you described it, this whole scheme of yours sounds very much like an Enron accountant's wet dream.
But that is exactly what is wrong with this situation. Aren't you, in effect, saying to Microsoft they are done with their OS and cannot build something that just does other things people could want?
Consider this example. Someone builds a mouse trap and it is highly effective. Takes care of just about every mouse that comes near it. No one is going to try to compete with it because it is so damn popular.
Now the mouse trap people try to make a good thing better and add a roach trap to their mouse trap and continue selling the thing to their happy customers for the same price.
The new product is an all in one infestation remover, and it does what people want it to do without too much grief. Suddenly, the guys who build the roach motels see their profits shrink and are up in arms over the situation.
Are the mousetrap people abusing their monopoly on mouse traps to obtain a roach trap monopoly? Of course not. Is anyone going to argue the mouse trap people should modify their product to allow consumers to remove the roach trap to install the roach trap they prefer? The roach motel people might, but they would be a very lonely voice. What is the difference here between the mouse trap builders and Microsoft? A few licensing agreements designed to move their product.
Again, I don't see how this is fair to the person building the OS (or the mouse trap). It is like Microsoft is being told they cannot build an all in one product because other people cannot keep up with them. I understand Microsoft possesses traits and qualities consistent with classical descriptions of all that is unholy and evil and as such should be castigated, the Earth should be salted where their corporate offices once stood, people should be lashed for speaking their name and all records of their existance should be purged from our records. But what do we gain by limiting big companies production practices to be competitive with those of the lowest common denominator?
Personally, I am concerned this could lead to higher prices for end users, longer times to market, and a gradual broadening of the definition of what is and is not a monopoly. Really, I don't need to spend more time on the phone explaining to my Dad how to burn a CD because he wants to do it in XYZ media player, which I have never used, because he doesn't get one when he buys Windows.
I hate to say it, but the Europeans are being too strict with Microsoft in this case, and it is hard to imagine how this remedy makes things easier for the average consumer. They are forcing options on a group of people who are probably already overwhelmed by the technology itself.
While Windows Media player is pure evil forged on a workstation powered by souls of the damned that is used at the peril of one's immortal soul and all that, it is hard to imagine why someone would need 7 different media players on their computer. Joe Average is going to want to play mp3s and videos on his PC, not spend time trying to understand the distinctions between WMA, RMA, MOV, etc.
It just doesn't seem right that choice should be forced on people. If Microsoft wants Windows to default to Windows Media when someone wants to play a CD, I do not understand what the problem is. They built the product, they understand how it works, and they have to field the support calls when someone wants to know why something doesn't work right. If somebody doesn't like it, they can install another player or turn to Linux just as easily.
Wow, what do you say about this? Watergate, anyone?
Considering the Patriot Act has made most of the crimes that occured in the Watergate affair a legal activity, this smacks of someone bending the rules a little too far in their favor. Who is watching what these people are up to these days?
Sparkle is a better name than that 'DirectAnimation' or 'MusicProducer' software they were sending me about 5 years ago. While I am certain this is going to be a dumb product that will fail to make any real impact in the long run, Microsoft is doing better with the names these days.
What I want to know is, with all the talk of school cutbacks, reductions in education spending, and the decline in U.S. educational standards, where are schools getting the money to build systems like this?
I mean, that's great that they want to know who is in the building and what time they got there, but it strikes me as odd that teachers could not perform the same duties using a pencil and piece of paper.
The focus of education is on academics, not punctuality. Unless every child there is doing Calculus, reading through one of the top 100 literature lists, knows where France is on a map, can dissect a pig, is able to competently complete a line rendering, and knows all that junk they teach you in home economics, the people behind this system are wasting these kid's time and their parent's money.
I'm sure someone else has complained about this ad nauseum, but product activation is going to keep people from learning how to use software. When I was just getting into Web development, I installed copies of Photoshop, Illustrator and Pagemaker on my computer at home in order to learn how to use them, and don't see how I could have done so otherwise. Something tells me I am not the only person for whom this is true.
Macromedia claims you can install a copy of their software at home and at work, which should help the problem, but come on. Do we really want everyone looking to become a programmer or creative professional to have to sign up for $500 courses just to get basic familiarity with software packages?
This is straying a bit off topic, but could you explain that comment? I have price sheets in front of me from 8 different vendors that say you are wrong by a 8-14% margin.
I wasn't being a troll, I was sarcastically expressing my disbelief at these figures. The day an Apple anything costs 1/7th the price of a similarly equipped PC solution I will stop buying computers.
Seriously, consider the 1/7th figure: what does that include? Electricity? Location? Staffing? There must be something more to this...
Great, everything is getting double the speed it got in 10.2...
The question that comes to mind is why did you pay for 10.2 if it wasn't ready to perform that well on the hardware you mentioned?
Apple is doing you no favors right now, and they are persuing the same path M$ did with Win 95/98/Me. Users are essentially paying to test the company's OS while they figure out how to get it to work properly. In the meantime, they are offering features and enhancements that are of marginal value at best.
The kernel optimization and network que enhancements are parts of BSD which Apple could not get working before the last release of their OS. The new finder, expose, mail app, etc. are nice looking applications, but they really don't do a lot you couldn't do before 10.3.
You declined to mention the most 'wonderful' thing Apple is claiming about the OS enhancements - a 64-bit OS(!). Mac OS X on the G5 right now is about as much a 64-bit system as the Atari Jaguar. Mac has not built a 64 bit OS, they built a 32-bit OS with portions recoded to take advantage of some 64-bit chipset features. People buying this upgrade and paying for Apple to make good on their claims.
Apple is at least a year off from living up to all their hype (which means application support is at least 2 years off), and it sucks to pay someone to make their OS work well with their system when they tout the tight integration between the two as a distinctive quality of their product. The worst part is that you will be paying a premium during this process.
I mean, yeah, the latest XP service pack is pretty much a bunch of bug fixes, but they also added USB 2.0 support, gave users new compatibility with about 200 consumer devices, and fixed numerous DHCP and networking issues. No system running XP is likely to run any faster than before the SP, but that can be considered a good thing next to Apple's program.
Finally, a single example of someone saving money on the purchase of an Apple!
I guess this means the price of that new Apple desktop machine is going to drop to 1/7th of that of a similarly equipped PC, because right now it's pretty much the other way around, and I am not 'switching' so I can pay more to receive far less.
I wonder if the university is going to have to pay for system patches like ordinary users do, and how this is going to affect the cost for the system.
I was suspicious of this project from the beginning. The way they market their product, promising immediate access to copyrighted items, was just too rosy and would leave any company wide open for litigation. This passage in the announcement pretty much sums up my take on the whole affair:
"The question then is 'why did they do it?' I'm sure they won't tell us, but here's a theory: They could be working for the RIAA, MPAA, or a similar organization. Once they have enough users on their ES5 network, they would start deleting all copyrighted files they own which their users are sharing. The users wouldn't know what hit them."
Can anyone come up with a plausible scenario where a P2P company would release software that destroys a computer, if it is not connected somehow to these groups?
Slashdot Mirror
No. This all started with her telling me she was afraid of wierdos on the Internet, and she no longer wanted to do a blog. We tried basic authentication to keep out people she doesn't know, but she got sick of having to hand out the username and password to all her friends, who can't remember an alphanumeric password to save their lives and can't always read their own handwriting.
She asked me why we couldn't let people put in their own names and passwords, so I showed her how to build a page that does this. Then we built an admin screen for user accounts, and she started to get the idea about if-then statements. Her next question was why can't she make it so everybody sees some stories but only some people see other stories. Then it was why can't we make it so some people see pictures and not others.
What we ended up with was her asking if everything could be turned on and turned off, and I said yes. I explained to her about recursion and how a function can call itself, and before long we had an n-level explicit permissions system under development. It probably took 2 months of coding, mostly on the weekends and with weekly milestones.
At each phase, this was her thinking, I tried just to help her write the code and understand what the control structures do. If you want, I can ask her to tell the story. She tells it far better than I could.
M
I'm doing my best, but the possibility that a boy may try to touch her someday persists. For my part, aside from educating her in how to write code, I am also investing in dental braces, science camp, violin lessons, tae kwon do school, and tutors in several languages. I plan on making this girl so smart and self-confident she will be 21 before any of that stuff happens.
M
She was concerned about people looking at pictures of her who she doesn't know. We drew up a scheme that allows her to assign permissions to friends based on the username and password they provide.
She also became concerned about people reading personal stories, ones where she mentions places she has been or where she lives.
The system we worked out is a recursive explicit explicit permissions system where she can define n levels of security. For instance, in a given section of the blog, she can say whether or not users have access. Then she can say whether or not users have access to individual stories in the section. Then she can say whether or not users have access to pictures in the story. And so on and so forth. When there is something else in a section, say a Word document stored as part of a story, she creates a new permission assigned to that specific item and shares it with other people.
For my part, I built a grouping mechanism that allows her to assign permissions to a number of users all at once.
M
We wrote the permissions system in PHP, and I explained the syntax to her every step of the way.
M
My daughter (who is 8) has her own blog. She was concerned about security, articulated to me a permissions system she would like to implement, and we wrote that system together.
Surprisingly enough, I brought that system to work with me today and we are using an expanded version of it for an enterprise system.
M
As a single father, I have been taking care of my daughter on my own for over 7 years now. I often think I could not take care of her by myself were it not for my job as a developer.
The biggest advantage has been in terms of salary, which has allowed me to afford private schools, material things and education which otherwise would have been hard to afford. I make more even than some of my friends in the banking industry, although their long term salary prospects are probably higher than my own.
The ability to work from home has been the second largest advantage. There have been days my daughter has been sick or on vacation where I could not physically be at work but have remained productive. Having a cable modem has made it so I am available to write code 24x7 and not be tied to a desk somewhere. Along with this goes the possibility of freelancing, which I have often had to do when the car breaks, an unexpected bill comes up, or when I just feel like taking a vacation.
The third biggest advantage is the social aspects of having a child. The relationships I have developed with other parents at my daughter's school have led to endless opportunities as a programmer, and I actually once got a job through another parent.
The bottom line is having a child is no shopstopper, even in terms of massive work schedules. I can work all day, go home and relax for four hours with the child until it is time for bed, then stay up and write code all night if I feel like. The fact is coding and parenting have many similarities - you are constantly issuing instructions and trying to find out why they are not producing the expected results.
M
Oh, how could this be a viable open source project without your support, Overly Critical Guy? People might as well write Shareaza off completely since you're not going to bother.
Your words set me straight. I am on my way to the police right now and will turn myself in for all those nefarious mp3s. Ensuring fair play for copyright owners (and massive corporate profits gained through questionable means) is what being a good corporate consumer is all about.
M
Several recent reports have come out noting the rise of female participation in MMUG's, I seem to remember Everquest being mentioned but I am not sure of the particulars. Anyways, there is a lot of growth in this area. While you did mention she is not into computer games, perhaps one avenue you want to explore is finding games that are popular with women and trying to introduce her to games that way.
Notice of full disclosure: I broke up with one girlfriend after the release of Warcraft II for the Mac, it was just such a cool game and she really did talk too much while I was TRYING TO DESTROY THE PUNY HUMANS.
M
"If You institute patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed."
This is what has people's feathers ruffled. Hmmm. Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but...
The problem with patent revocation, in this sense, is that if someone builds a product on top of a work having an Apache 2.0 license, then goes and patents his own work, that person is in a bind.
If he finds his patented work incorporated into the original project without his consent and sues over it, that person suddenly loses the patent license to the original work. It's like putting 2 trains aimed at each other on the same track, except that one of them (the patent holders) is made out of paper.
I do not see how this revocation clause incourages the development of better software. If someone does have a novel idea that they would like to market, they cannot choose to build on anything using the Apache 2.0 license without exposing themselves to a huge legal loophole.
M
> > If you and a friend have a project that will
> > cost $1200 but will net you $1800 in a year, you
> > each stand to gain $900 minus your investment.
> > But you only have $800 total. If you get another
> > friend in on it, all three of you will only net
> > $200 apiece ($600 - $400). If you get $400 debt
> > at 5%, then the two of you will make $1800 -
> > $420 (debt + interest) = $1380 / 2 = $690 - $400
> > = $290.
Perhaps it is just the way you described it, this whole scheme of yours sounds very much like an Enron accountant's wet dream.
M
But that is exactly what is wrong with this situation. Aren't you, in effect, saying to Microsoft they are done with their OS and cannot build something that just does other things people could want?
Consider this example. Someone builds a mouse trap and it is highly effective. Takes care of just about every mouse that comes near it. No one is going to try to compete with it because it is so damn popular.
Now the mouse trap people try to make a good thing better and add a roach trap to their mouse trap and continue selling the thing to their happy customers for the same price.
The new product is an all in one infestation remover, and it does what people want it to do without too much grief. Suddenly, the guys who build the roach motels see their profits shrink and are up in arms over the situation.
Are the mousetrap people abusing their monopoly on mouse traps to obtain a roach trap monopoly? Of course not. Is anyone going to argue the mouse trap people should modify their product to allow consumers to remove the roach trap to install the roach trap they prefer? The roach motel people might, but they would be a very lonely voice. What is the difference here between the mouse trap builders and Microsoft? A few licensing agreements designed to move their product.
Again, I don't see how this is fair to the person building the OS (or the mouse trap). It is like Microsoft is being told they cannot build an all in one product because other people cannot keep up with them. I understand Microsoft possesses traits and qualities consistent with classical descriptions of all that is unholy and evil and as such should be castigated, the Earth should be salted where their corporate offices once stood, people should be lashed for speaking their name and all records of their existance should be purged from our records. But what do we gain by limiting big companies production practices to be competitive with those of the lowest common denominator?
Personally, I am concerned this could lead to higher prices for end users, longer times to market, and a gradual broadening of the definition of what is and is not a monopoly. Really, I don't need to spend more time on the phone explaining to my Dad how to burn a CD because he wants to do it in XYZ media player, which I have never used, because he doesn't get one when he buys Windows.
M
I hate to say it, but the Europeans are being too strict with Microsoft in this case, and it is hard to imagine how this remedy makes things easier for the average consumer. They are forcing options on a group of people who are probably already overwhelmed by the technology itself.
While Windows Media player is pure evil forged on a workstation powered by souls of the damned that is used at the peril of one's immortal soul and all that, it is hard to imagine why someone would need 7 different media players on their computer. Joe Average is going to want to play mp3s and videos on his PC, not spend time trying to understand the distinctions between WMA, RMA, MOV, etc.
It just doesn't seem right that choice should be forced on people. If Microsoft wants Windows to default to Windows Media when someone wants to play a CD, I do not understand what the problem is. They built the product, they understand how it works, and they have to field the support calls when someone wants to know why something doesn't work right. If somebody doesn't like it, they can install another player or turn to Linux just as easily.
M
Wow, what do you say about this? Watergate, anyone?
Considering the Patriot Act has made most of the crimes that occured in the Watergate affair a legal activity, this smacks of someone bending the rules a little too far in their favor. Who is watching what these people are up to these days?
That $500 would take you far in Bangladesh.
What does this say about SCO's network admins? Unless I am missing something, syncookies would have taken care of this easily.
Sparkle is a better name than that 'DirectAnimation' or 'MusicProducer' software they were sending me about 5 years ago. While I am certain this is going to be a dumb product that will fail to make any real impact in the long run, Microsoft is doing better with the names these days.
It was Cowboy Neal. He did it all.
I want the money in small bills.
What I want to know is, with all the talk of school cutbacks, reductions in education spending, and the decline in U.S. educational standards, where are schools getting the money to build systems like this?
I mean, that's great that they want to know who is in the building and what time they got there, but it strikes me as odd that teachers could not perform the same duties using a pencil and piece of paper.
The focus of education is on academics, not punctuality. Unless every child there is doing Calculus, reading through one of the top 100 literature lists, knows where France is on a map, can dissect a pig, is able to competently complete a line rendering, and knows all that junk they teach you in home economics, the people behind this system are wasting these kid's time and their parent's money.
I'm sure someone else has complained about this ad nauseum, but product activation is going to keep people from learning how to use software. When I was just getting into Web development, I installed copies of Photoshop, Illustrator and Pagemaker on my computer at home in order to learn how to use them, and don't see how I could have done so otherwise. Something tells me I am not the only person for whom this is true.
Macromedia claims you can install a copy of their software at home and at work, which should help the problem, but come on. Do we really want everyone looking to become a programmer or creative professional to have to sign up for $500 courses just to get basic familiarity with software packages?
M
This is straying a bit off topic, but could you explain that comment? I have price sheets in front of me from 8 different vendors that say you are wrong by a 8-14% margin.
I wasn't being a troll, I was sarcastically expressing my disbelief at these figures. The day an Apple anything costs 1/7th the price of a similarly equipped PC solution I will stop buying computers.
Seriously, consider the 1/7th figure: what does that include? Electricity? Location? Staffing? There must be something more to this...
Great, everything is getting double the speed it got in 10.2...
The question that comes to mind is why did you pay for 10.2 if it wasn't ready to perform that well on the hardware you mentioned?
Apple is doing you no favors right now, and they are persuing the same path M$ did with Win 95/98/Me. Users are essentially paying to test the company's OS while they figure out how to get it to work properly. In the meantime, they are offering features and enhancements that are of marginal value at best.
The kernel optimization and network que enhancements are parts of BSD which Apple could not get working before the last release of their OS. The new finder, expose, mail app, etc. are nice looking applications, but they really don't do a lot you couldn't do before 10.3.
You declined to mention the most 'wonderful' thing Apple is claiming about the OS enhancements - a 64-bit OS(!). Mac OS X on the G5 right now is about as much a 64-bit system as the Atari Jaguar. Mac has not built a 64 bit OS, they built a 32-bit OS with portions recoded to take advantage of some 64-bit chipset features. People buying this upgrade and paying for Apple to make good on their claims.
Apple is at least a year off from living up to all their hype (which means application support is at least 2 years off), and it sucks to pay someone to make their OS work well with their system when they tout the tight integration between the two as a distinctive quality of their product. The worst part is that you will be paying a premium during this process.
I mean, yeah, the latest XP service pack is pretty much a bunch of bug fixes, but they also added USB 2.0 support, gave users new compatibility with about 200 consumer devices, and fixed numerous DHCP and networking issues. No system running XP is likely to run any faster than before the SP, but that can be considered a good thing next to Apple's program.
The features included in 10.3 would amount to a service release in Windows.
Finally, a single example of someone saving money on the purchase of an Apple!
I guess this means the price of that new Apple desktop machine is going to drop to 1/7th of that of a similarly equipped PC, because right now it's pretty much the other way around, and I am not 'switching' so I can pay more to receive far less.
I wonder if the university is going to have to pay for system patches like ordinary users do, and how this is going to affect the cost for the system.
I was suspicious of this project from the beginning. The way they market their product, promising immediate access to copyrighted items, was just too rosy and would leave any company wide open for litigation. This passage in the announcement pretty much sums up my take on the whole affair:
"The question then is 'why did they do it?' I'm sure they won't tell us, but here's a theory: They could be working for the RIAA, MPAA, or a similar organization. Once they have enough users on their ES5 network, they would start deleting all copyrighted files they own which their users are sharing. The users wouldn't know what hit them."
Can anyone come up with a plausible scenario where a P2P company would release software that destroys a computer, if it is not connected somehow to these groups?