Thanks for the info. As you can see from most of the posters, they're either:
1. looking at the "nuts and bolts" issues - pros and cons of each language. The problem with that is that you don't have enough experience to properly evaluate the answers. I know, it's a catch-22 - if you had that experience, you wouldn't be asking, right? Which brings us to:
2. stepping back and looking at methodologies - the hows of developing maintainable code, refactoring, etc. The problem with this is that, until you have some language experience, all this is theoretical and won't mean much to you except as abstract ideas. Which brings us to:
3. arguing for different platforms -- iThingies vs AndroidThingies - and one of the advantages of Android that I haven't seen anyone mention is that you don't need to know C or C++ or ObjectiveC/ObjectionableC. Just a subset of Java (language syntax, some boilerplate for how to make a class, the manifest files, resources, and a few other things). As a bonus, you can develop for free on any laptop, put any android phone into dev mode, and load/run your app on your phone quicker than you can launch it in the emulator. And no license fees. (cue everyone who says the average iPhone app earns more than the average Android app. The fact is that most earn either nothing or less than $100/month - see my post here with links to citations). Which brings us to:
4. taking a step back and asking "Do I really want to do this?" "What else can I do?" "What really floats my boat?" Maybe you'll decide that, until you get that sorted out, you want to take a (probably low-paying, but with your degree, who knows where that will lead) job at some humanitarian organization that will give you a different perspective on life while you brush up on your code skills in your spare time.
Before you do decide to get into it, I'd suggest taking a few weeks to learn Java first (plain Java, not Android), even if you decide to go into iThing apps - not only is there still a demand for Java developers, but it will give you the basics of OOP, which you'll need anyway, the syntax is pretty much the same as the C family of languages, you don't have to worry too much about this, and there are plenty of free tools out there. You should be able to get started with a simple "Hello, world!" command-line Java program your first hour.
The good news for you is that at the bottom of the profession is enough money to feed a family and pay off what you fear is a worthless degree.
The problem is that the poster isn't even at the bottom of the ladder. He hasn't stepped on even the first rung. And pay at the bottom won't pay your bills. Not when you're competing with everyone else who finds themselves in the same situation - new to the field, no practical experience, etc. And even when he gets to the point where he can make an app, the numbers are awful:
Accounting for 47% of app developers, the “have nothings” include the 24% of app developers – who are interested in making money, it should be noted – who make nothing at all.
Meanwhile, 23% make something, but it’s under $100 per month
There is no shortage of stories about lone developers who made an app for the iPhone or iPad and had runaway success. But in the real world, the majority of app makers struggle to break even, according to a recent survey by marketing firm App Promo. Though the survey's methodology is a bit on the light side, numerous developers that we spoke to agree that the results -- 59 percent of apps don't break even, and 80 percent of developers can't sustain a business on their apps alone -- are close to accurate.
I'd be shouting "It's a trap!" but I think with these numbers, I don't have to. And the numbers are only going to get worse over time.
That pretty much sums up the whole thing - it's totally useless, but people are thinking "KEWL" like this must be the next big thing.
And if you have an electric stove, you can leave the burner on 24/7 and it won't burn your house down unless the cat decides to commit ritual suicide on it, then runs around spreading burning cat-fur all over the place. And the easy way to prevent that is to get a dog what you can bring with you:-)
So it's not worthless yet. Just potentially worthless. Maybe you've written it off because your idea of jobs that fit your training is too narrow? It would be nice if you could post what degree you have (not just so that we can give a better answer, but also to warn others if necessary).
Also, what sort of slack time can you allow yourself to get up to speed? Are you working either part or full-time to pay the bills, so you can do it at your own pace, or are you under the gun to get up to speed and make an income quickly? (if it's the latter, as we say, "good luck with that.")
These "ask slashdots" always degenerate because the questioner never gives enough relevant info.
I don't need my microwave, toaster, coffeemaker, fridge, stove, connected to the Internet.
Nor my TV, lighting, or sound system.
Nor my toilet.
The smarter things get, the dumber we get. How many of us, if we loose our smartphones, won't remember the phone numbers of the people we should call to give them our new number? If this keeps on, eventually we'll need an app just to call 9-1-1.
Simpler is often better and cheaper, and when something goes wrong, easier to fix.
Unlike building and junking fridges, going into space increases both our scientific and our technical abilities. You probably wouldn't have a PC today if the race to the moon hadn't happened.
Try this one on for size: The money spent on space programs is 100% spent on earth.
People see the headline "$800 million spent on Mars probe" and somehow feel that that's $800 million that was packed in a suitcase and blasted into space. That's $800 million that was spent on jobs, either directly or indirectly. In comparison, keeping the money in a suitcase or a safety deposit box is ineffective.
And some of that $800 million gets returned in taxes on wages, and some of THAT tax money goes to aid programs. Putting the money in a suitcase would generate zero dollars for aid programs.
Every evaluation and ranking algorithm that is not based off a random number generator carries, by definition, biases favoring some criteria over others.
And, believing this, you of course browse at -2, since Slashdot's moderation system is a kind of ranking system and thus carries bias, and all biases are equal?
Two points:
1. My original statement still stands.
2. Unfortunately, I'm stuck at -1 because that's where a lot of the action is. If there were a -2, sign me up:-)
This is bullshit. Testers are like Mexican field workers. They turn up at the offices, sit in room playing the game sections over and over, then hit a log button whenever something odd happens.
Yep, One of my nephews thought it would be cool to become a game tester, so he applied to Ubisoft. He quit after (iirc) a month because it was boring, repetitive, and only paid minimum wage.
Several people posted comments in the firehose that the math was off.
Instead of saying "generating more power from "clean" technologies than nuclear, coal and gas." they should have said "generating more power from "clean" technologies than either nuclear, coal or gas."
This would have made it clear that "clean technologies" was an aggregate sum, and that the other sources were counted individually.
The parliament isn't *doing* anything. They're studying the issue.
The more dominant one search engine is, the more likely that other search engines will try to implement the same search algorithms the dominant player is using, in order to gain market share. So this will not create a diverse ecosystem, any more than having 100 clones of Facebook or Twitter will.
Trying to solve a technical problem (that any good search algorithm is going to have be biased rather than pick sites at random) with political action isn't going to solve the problem. It's like the politicians who wanted to make a law saying that pi=3.2 because it's "easier to deal with."
And of course, having two competitors would end up having the lesser of the two trying to imitate the algorithms of the more successful one (which is just history repeating itself with PageRank).
The resolution underlines that "the online search market is of particular importance in ensuring competitive conditions within the digital single market" and welcomes the Commission’s pledges to investigate further the search engines’ practices.
It calls on the Commission "to prevent any abuse in the marketing of interlinked services by operators of search engines", stressing the importance of non-discriminatory online search. "Indexation, evaluation, presentation and ranking by search engines must be unbiased and transparent", MEPs say.
And it's also not only unenforceable, but impossible. Every evaluation and ranking algorithm that is not based off a random number generator carries, by definition, biases favoring some criteria over others. There will always be someone crying foul because they're lower in the rankings. This is a tar pit.
1 TB has enough data for every man woman and child who ever lived to write a 1500 page book! Will Joe Six Pack really need to have that 30 TB drive when his circa 2012 1 TB drive has 70% free space on it?
Okay, but it's not enough to back up the consciousness of even 1 Joe Sixpack while waiting for the singularity. Anyone want to make a WAG on how much storage that would require?
But at least when a drive is getting ready to donate its' magets to the fridge door, it usually makes noises, clicks, squeals, etc. That gives time to back it up. Plus I've never heard of anyone restoring a failed SSD by sticking it in the fridge overnight (in a plastic bag, of course).
There are trade-offs either way, because unfortunately NOT failing is not an option.
There's no such thing as a message retraction feature - all you need is a camera to make a copy of the message or picture. They can delete it from the server, you'll still have a copy. Anyone sending sensitive information using this bogus "feature" is an idiot. Doubly so if they're sending nude selfies.
He needs money, maybe he can do something to make money, like, you know, start up a web site to share stuff? In North Korea? He's a match for their glorious leader's ideology.
Actually, the deal was amended to shift all the risk to GT:
Apple originally offered to buy sapphire-growing furnaces from GT. But according to sources familiar with negotiations, after five months Apple demanded a major change in terms, requiring GT to supply the sapphire itself. In fact, Apple wanted GT to build the world’s largest factory to produce the stuff—more than doubling the world’s entire sapphire production capacity.
In the end, the fundamentals weren't good for either party. GT is bankrupt, and Apple had to switch their plans from sapphire at the last minute.
Slashdot Mirror
1. looking at the "nuts and bolts" issues - pros and cons of each language. The problem with that is that you don't have enough experience to properly evaluate the answers. I know, it's a catch-22 - if you had that experience, you wouldn't be asking, right? Which brings us to:
2. stepping back and looking at methodologies - the hows of developing maintainable code, refactoring, etc. The problem with this is that, until you have some language experience, all this is theoretical and won't mean much to you except as abstract ideas. Which brings us to:
3. arguing for different platforms -- iThingies vs AndroidThingies - and one of the advantages of Android that I haven't seen anyone mention is that you don't need to know C or C++ or ObjectiveC/ObjectionableC. Just a subset of Java (language syntax, some boilerplate for how to make a class, the manifest files, resources, and a few other things). As a bonus, you can develop for free on any laptop, put any android phone into dev mode, and load/run your app on your phone quicker than you can launch it in the emulator. And no license fees. (cue everyone who says the average iPhone app earns more than the average Android app. The fact is that most earn either nothing or less than $100/month - see my post here with links to citations). Which brings us to:
4. taking a step back and asking "Do I really want to do this?" "What else can I do?" "What really floats my boat?" Maybe you'll decide that, until you get that sorted out, you want to take a (probably low-paying, but with your degree, who knows where that will lead) job at some humanitarian organization that will give you a different perspective on life while you brush up on your code skills in your spare time.
Before you do decide to get into it, I'd suggest taking a few weeks to learn Java first (plain Java, not Android), even if you decide to go into iThing apps - not only is there still a demand for Java developers, but it will give you the basics of OOP, which you'll need anyway, the syntax is pretty much the same as the C family of languages, you don't have to worry too much about this, and there are plenty of free tools out there. You should be able to get started with a simple "Hello, world!" command-line Java program your first hour.
The good news for you is that at the bottom of the profession is enough money to feed a family and pay off what you fear is a worthless degree.
The problem is that the poster isn't even at the bottom of the ladder. He hasn't stepped on even the first rung. And pay at the bottom won't pay your bills. Not when you're competing with everyone else who finds themselves in the same situation - new to the field, no practical experience, etc. And even when he gets to the point where he can make an app, the numbers are awful:
Accounting for 47% of app developers, the “have nothings” include the 24% of app developers – who are interested in making money, it should be noted – who make nothing at all.
Meanwhile, 23% make something, but it’s under $100 per month
and this
How Do You Make Money When Less Than 1% Of Apps Are 'Financially Successful'
and this
There is no shortage of stories about lone developers who made an app for the iPhone or iPad and had runaway success. But in the real world, the majority of app makers struggle to break even, according to a recent survey by marketing firm App Promo. Though the survey's methodology is a bit on the light side, numerous developers that we spoke to agree that the results -- 59 percent of apps don't break even, and 80 percent of developers can't sustain a business on their apps alone -- are close to accurate.
I'd be shouting "It's a trap!" but I think with these numbers, I don't have to. And the numbers are only going to get worse over time.
Totally useless, but totally awesome.
That pretty much sums up the whole thing - it's totally useless, but people are thinking "KEWL" like this must be the next big thing.
And if you have an electric stove, you can leave the burner on 24/7 and it won't burn your house down unless the cat decides to commit ritual suicide on it, then runs around spreading burning cat-fur all over the place. And the easy way to prevent that is to get a dog what you can bring with you :-)
potentially worthless social science field
So it's not worthless yet. Just potentially worthless. Maybe you've written it off because your idea of jobs that fit your training is too narrow? It would be nice if you could post what degree you have (not just so that we can give a better answer, but also to warn others if necessary).
Also, what sort of slack time can you allow yourself to get up to speed? Are you working either part or full-time to pay the bills, so you can do it at your own pace, or are you under the gun to get up to speed and make an income quickly? (if it's the latter, as we say, "good luck with that.")
These "ask slashdots" always degenerate because the questioner never gives enough relevant info.
Personally, I think we are already beyond the sustainable capacity of the planet.
Agreed. I think we passed it a long time ago, just like the point of no return on the federal deficit.
How about we just not do it?
I don't need my microwave, toaster, coffeemaker, fridge, stove, connected to the Internet.
Nor my TV, lighting, or sound system.
Nor my toilet.
The smarter things get, the dumber we get. How many of us, if we loose our smartphones, won't remember the phone numbers of the people we should call to give them our new number? If this keeps on, eventually we'll need an app just to call 9-1-1.
Simpler is often better and cheaper, and when something goes wrong, easier to fix.
I will stick with systemd version, which works fast and provides an actually exiting startup manager.
An exiting startup manager? Is that a less destructive alternative to the HCF (Halt and Catch Fire) instruction?
That's $800 million that was spent on jobs
Then it would follow that building refrigerators by the millions and dropping them into the sea would increase the economy, too. It will not.
1850 called and would like it's broken window fallacy back.
Unlike building and junking fridges, going into space increases both our scientific and our technical abilities. You probably wouldn't have a PC today if the race to the moon hadn't happened.
Devuan will do its best to stay minimal and abide to the UNIX philosophy of "doing one thing and doing it well"
I don't need a kitchen sink in my computer, or my computer in the kitchen sink. It's not like chocolate and peanut butter. I wish them the best.
Try this one on for size: The money spent on space programs is 100% spent on earth.
People see the headline "$800 million spent on Mars probe" and somehow feel that that's $800 million that was packed in a suitcase and blasted into space. That's $800 million that was spent on jobs, either directly or indirectly. In comparison, keeping the money in a suitcase or a safety deposit box is ineffective.
And some of that $800 million gets returned in taxes on wages, and some of THAT tax money goes to aid programs. Putting the money in a suitcase would generate zero dollars for aid programs.
Every evaluation and ranking algorithm that is not based off a random number generator carries, by definition, biases favoring some criteria over others.
And, believing this, you of course browse at -2, since Slashdot's moderation system is a kind of ranking system and thus carries bias, and all biases are equal?
Two points:
1. My original statement still stands. :-)
2. Unfortunately, I'm stuck at -1 because that's where a lot of the action is. If there were a -2, sign me up
Darn, sorry I can't upmod you, but you gave me a laugh when I needed it.
This is bullshit. Testers are like Mexican field workers. They turn up at the offices, sit in room playing the game sections over and over, then hit a log button whenever something odd happens.
Yep, One of my nephews thought it would be cool to become a game tester, so he applied to Ubisoft. He quit after (iirc) a month because it was boring, repetitive, and only paid minimum wage.
Several people posted comments in the firehose that the math was off.
Instead of saying "generating more power from "clean" technologies than nuclear, coal and gas." they should have said "generating more power from "clean" technologies than either nuclear, coal or gas."
This would have made it clear that "clean technologies" was an aggregate sum, and that the other sources were counted individually.
The parliament isn't *doing* anything. They're studying the issue.
The more dominant one search engine is, the more likely that other search engines will try to implement the same search algorithms the dominant player is using, in order to gain market share. So this will not create a diverse ecosystem, any more than having 100 clones of Facebook or Twitter will.
Trying to solve a technical problem (that any good search algorithm is going to have be biased rather than pick sites at random) with political action isn't going to solve the problem. It's like the politicians who wanted to make a law saying that pi=3.2 because it's "easier to deal with."
And of course, having two competitors would end up having the lesser of the two trying to imitate the algorithms of the more successful one (which is just history repeating itself with PageRank).
The resolution underlines that "the online search market is of particular importance in ensuring competitive conditions within the digital single market" and welcomes the Commission’s pledges to investigate further the search engines’ practices.
It calls on the Commission "to prevent any abuse in the marketing of interlinked services by operators of search engines", stressing the importance of non-discriminatory online search. "Indexation, evaluation, presentation and ranking by search engines must be unbiased and transparent", MEPs say.
And it's also not only unenforceable, but impossible. Every evaluation and ranking algorithm that is not based off a random number generator carries, by definition, biases favoring some criteria over others. There will always be someone crying foul because they're lower in the rankings. This is a tar pit.
"Politicians have no power to enforce a break-up"
1 TB has enough data for every man woman and child who ever lived to write a 1500 page book! Will Joe Six Pack really need to have that 30 TB drive when his circa 2012 1 TB drive has 70% free space on it?
Okay, but it's not enough to back up the consciousness of even 1 Joe Sixpack while waiting for the singularity. Anyone want to make a WAG on how much storage that would require?
Much better, much faster the HDD, and no Star Trek references.
Really? You might want to re-read your post.
There are trade-offs either way, because unfortunately NOT failing is not an option.
There's no such thing as a message retraction feature - all you need is a camera to make a copy of the message or picture. They can delete it from the server, you'll still have a copy. Anyone sending sensitive information using this bogus "feature" is an idiot. Doubly so if they're sending nude selfies.
Welcome to the world where capital rules. Don't say communism is better, its the world where crazy old alcoholics rule.
One thing about old-style Soviet communism - old alcoholics become dead alcoholics a lot quicker. Or they're "retired".
He needs money, maybe he can do something to make money, like, you know, start up a web site to share stuff? In North Korea? He's a match for their glorious leader's ideology.
Apple originally offered to buy sapphire-growing furnaces from GT. But according to sources familiar with negotiations, after five months Apple demanded a major change in terms, requiring GT to supply the sapphire itself. In fact, Apple wanted GT to build the world’s largest factory to produce the stuff—more than doubling the world’s entire sapphire production capacity.
In the end, the fundamentals weren't good for either party. GT is bankrupt, and Apple had to switch their plans from sapphire at the last minute.