Full Disclosure: One of my employees, Scott, wrote this song (and I recorded it). The inspiration came from one of our dev teams that was constantly complaining about the problems the browser gave them.
I know I am completely biased but I have a high level of confidence that what I say is true even though it is subjective.
Many of my employees have told me that this is the best place they've worked at and I've had some of them break down in tears while they've said it. Other people we've invited to our Christmas dinner have said that the atmosphere is so positive in a way that they've never seen before. We play games for the last hour of every Friday for bonding. When we make sprint goals every 3/4 weeks, we go out somewhere and just play (canoeing, planetarium, movies). In our new division, which I've been running for the last couple years, we've never had anybody quit. At Christmas I offered to match donations to charities and I like philanthropy. Last few Christmas I've given things like PSPs, Nintento DSs and we have a gift giving competition with big prizes. I can't remember the last time anybody asked for a raise because I pay people fairly. We are all great friends yet we are all quite different. And the 2nd best company award in BC (Canada) is awarded based on what employees say in person to person interviews in private, not on what the owners say.
I agree that it is easy to deceive yourself and so I try to stay fairly conscious of the fact that it can happen. This is why I often ask for feedback and provide feedback. When people don't like what I'm doing, they do tend to tell me, and we always resolve it.
Here's the thing. I actually knew another financial advisor (he had a firm) that I felt was morally bankrupt. This was around the same time as I met the one I talked about above. The morally bankrupt one lost all his money and I know several of his employees who seem to all hate him. When I met my lawyer, the very nice and honest one I mentioned, he was not a partner and he is now a partner and very successful. In my personal experience, the morally upstanding people have succeeded in much higher proportion to those who haven't. I'm not saying there is a correlation between success and a moral compass but at the same time, I definitely haven't seen any signs of an inverse correlation as suggested by the Ferrari comment. The news may say different but all the morally upstanding Ferrari owners probably never make the news nor do they make for great movies.
How do this get modded up? It seems like the only kind of people that you can stereotype and prejudice safely are the rich. "Most" people that I know who own expensive cars or boats are amongst the nicest and most moral people I know. Not everything is like television or the movies.
I'm not sure whether it's worth admitting but I own a Ferrari and I would consider myself having a very high moral code. I treat my employees really well (One of my companies was rated 2nd best company to work for in BC), I pay all my business taxes (in an audit we were caught something like $50 for an accidental missing receipt out of millions) and I declare every last thing at the border.
I know that anecdote (especially personal anecdote) is not data but also my accountant is quite wealthy (he is one of the most morally upstanding accountants I know and somehow his clients are all rich. He is also a philanthropist.), my financial manager runs the Vancouver branch of a financial firm and he is upstanding. And believe it or not (and you probably won't), my lawyer is one of the nicest and one of the most honest and upstanding people I know.
Ok, so those people don't own a Ferrari (I actually don't know any other Ferrari owners), but one owns an expensive classic car and another owns a nice boat and they all could probably afford one.
So are there bad versions of the same? Of course. But being somewhat rich, I don't find that being rich has anything to do with being slimey. I know plenty of people who are both rich and poor who are morally bankrupt and morally upstanding. Generally speaking, in my circles though, the rich people are more morally upstanding as a proportion. That being said, my sample size is small and I'm sure I have a huge selection bias in who I associate with.
At the voting booth, you are required to relinquish one of your stubs, either the real or fake one (it's up to you). The boss only has one to choose from.
Not sure if I like the entire idea, but this could be a workaround for your specific problem.
A while ago my company interviewed someone who, in the course of some standard question, said that after the 5 o'clock whistle blows, they avoid computers totally. They don't have any hobbies involving their PC and often don't turn it on unless they are expecting an important email or need to look up directions. I followed up to ask how they got into programming and they said they took the right courses in college and now has had a few jobs doing it.
Would you hire a software engineer who isn't a hobbyist programmer? What if they avoid computers totally at home? Does it matter if a candidate has strictly a professional interest in software and just pretends it doesn't exist outside the office?
Here's another way to frame this question: Would I even interview a programmer who only works their programming job from 9-5? If not, why not?
The answer is remarkably simple. No, I would not interview them, for the simple reason that I don't know who they are and they don't know who I am. When I am hiring, my first and best source of prospective colleagues is my network. Industry people I know. Where do I get to know people? Conferences. Open source. Blogging. Twitter. I don't advertise my job openings on monster.com. So how did this person come to sit in front of me to tell me he(?) pretends software doesn't exist outside of the office?
I think you have to align your values with your complete hiring process, not just with your interview questions. If you value people who are passionate about their craft, you have to use a different means of selecting prospects than if you value having warm bodies sitting in chairs. If you want a warm body with a certain minimal competence in a chair, you use monster.com and recruiters to find people. if you value community and craft, you use your network and your community.
Done this way, questions like the above tend to take care of themselves.
The system works pretty well in Vancouver, Canada.
You can use coins as normal or you can dial a phone number to pay by credit card. Each meter has a number used to identify it.
The first time you use it, you have to register a license and your credit card number. After that, it remembers it based on your caller id I would imagine. You can register multiple cars no problem. It's a bit of a pain enter your license the first time you use it (it would be nice if you could try to use voice recognition first) but after the first time, it's pretty smooth.
The nice thing is that you don't have to go back to your car when you run out of time. To me, that is the biggest pain of street parking. Forget that you have to go half a block to pay for parking. If you have to run back from a few blocks, or in the middle of eating, that is even worse. With the system, we just call the number again and it asks if you want to extend your time. You just enter how many minutes.
I usually use it like this: (a) put in as many coins as I have and take a picture of the meter which has the id number with my iPhone (b) if I'm not back by the amount of time I got from the coins, I call and add time.
This is a fantastic idea and having used monitors in portrait mode (vertically oriented) instead of landscape mode, I can never go back. Better yet, there are many monitors that have a built in pivot. You can fit twice as many lines of code and still take very little desk space.
The assertion that historic jets could shoot this target down may be true, however, the calculation appears flawed because you are assuming that:
(a) the plane is shooting directly up which means it needs to be able to have a completely vertical trajectory at the flight ceiling (or at least that the gun pod can aim directly up which does not seem to be the case from the photos though I could be wrong)
(b) that the range of its gun pod when shooting directly up is not less due to the effects of, say, gravity. I'm guessing that the range estimation of 3000m is assuming a target that is roughly horizontal from the plane. I suppose there could be an increase in range due to reduced air resistance at high altitudes though?
That would imply that all Rails developers are idiots. If Oracle is the only DB where the DB supports clustering properly and someone needs clustering, he should use Oracle or he should find another business to work in since you are an idiot. You select the correct tool for the job.
Also, given that Oracle is, by a significant margin, the chosen database for critical enterprise stuff, if your 0% assertion is true, then Rails isn't used anywhere for important stuff.
That's a false dichotomy. Many Rails developers are really smart but they won't use Oracle for other reasons. The major roadblock with Oracle is not that it's the wrong tool, it's that it is not free (neither as in beer nor speech).
It isn't easy to convert a large software project, constantly in flux, to support clustering
If clustering is supported by the DB, yes it is. That is why it belongs in the DB realm.
I don't think we're disagreeing on this point. Your hypothesis is that if you have clustering in a db, then it is easy. I'm simply stating the fact that nobody uses dbs that support clustering with Ruby (MySQL supports clustering but it is an in-memory database). If clustering was well supported in open source databases, I'd agree with you. Also, it's not unheard of for ORMs to support clustering. Sequel, another Ruby ORM engine growing in popularity, has rudimentary support for clustering. I noticed that Rails 2 has implemented many ideas from Sequel already. I wouldn't be surprised, that ActiveRecord starts including some rudimentary support for sharding in the future as well.
Say you build a nice wiki app. Later you decide that would fit in well with your project manager. How much work would it take to get it to work? Normally. A lot.
No, it would not. Not the way I develop apps. I develop in a way where what I do is re-usable. I don't see what Rails have to do with that.
That's good for you. But how many OTHER people would be able to incorporate your code into their app. What if they wanted your wiki to support clustering on their open source database? What if they store their uploaded files in S3 and your wiki stores them in MogileFS or just a mapped drive? What you are really building then is a set of best practices that works for you. As an experienced Rails developer, perhaps this is everything that you need; however, most everyone has different deployment needs. What I'm really advocating is that all the same problems that people encounter simply be standardized. This is just like how ActiveRecord standardized database access.
It wasn't too long ago that in the Ruby world, you used a MySQL library, a PostgreSQL library, etc. Then your applications was locked into the database you developed for. ActiveRecord removes the ugliness associated with switching databases and it becomes about developing your app, not about DEPLOYING your app.
Convention over configuration is fine. I like it. But that's not the magic I'm talking about.... All the automatic method generation (method missing), autoloading based on names, conversions from singular to plural. That's what I mean by magic.
What surprises me is that you don't seem to understand that the two paragraphs quoted above are self-contradictory to a degree. The "magic" you don't like is either a core part of Rails (so you don't like Rails) or it is part of Convention over Configuration. Honestly, since it is documented, and well understood, I can't see why you think it is "magic".
Yeah, you're right, some of it is self-contradictory. Let me clarify better then. I don't like the magic that makes it hard to read the Rails code. You seem to not like the word magic. I'm not using it in an evil way. I think most Rails developers actually agree and know that there is a lot of magic in Rails. The problem is that there is
Before I respond, I just want to reiterate the I like Rails and that I really respect its creator; that said, a framework is just a tool and as such it can and should be improved and also that there are other ideas that are different (and sometimes even more radical) that work too.
zero changes... to go from single database to a cluster of databases
Perhaps, or perhaps this isn't something that belongs in the application-server domain at all, but in the database driver domain. In other words, if you need a cluster of DBs, use a DB product that supports this seamlessly. I am not going to mention Oracle by name, but it would support what you are asking here I assume, depending on how the Rails/Oracle guys wrote the Ora driver for Rails. Never tried Rails with Oracle, but for all apps I have written lately, this is taken care of by the Ora driver.
I agree that clustering would be better solved in the database but I also wish my apps would just write themselves. Neither is realistic or true. The fact is, clustering right now (at least in open source) must be in the application or the framework (note MySQL clustering does not solve the issue). The number of Rails apps using Oracle as a backend are approaching 0%. With the choice between the developer having to write a clustering implementation for every different application and having the framework handle it, I would much rather have the solution in the framework.
The real problem is that if you don't design your app to use clustering at the beginning (which most people don't) then when they need it, it becomes a major issue. It isn't easy to convert a large software project, constantly in flux, to support clustering. Shouldn't you instead just focus on building your app and then when you need clustering, just flip a switch?
Reusable code.
Depending on how you do Rails, this is fully supported. Unless of course I am misunderstanding what you are asking. There is nothing in Rails that prevents you from creating re-usable code. Honestly.
You are misunderstanding but understandable so. Actually, I haven't seen any framework solve this problem so it's easy to not see what this really means and if so, if it is possible.
How many reusable features do you see out in the Rails world? I can't remember running across one (though perhaps there is some out there). This is because it takes a lot of work to make a feature reusable. If the framework is designed to not just support reusability (which any framework can do) but instead make it so that any feature you build is AUTOMATICALLY reusable, that is the difference.
Say you build a nice wiki app. Later you decide that would fit in well with your project manager. How much work would it take to get it to work? Normally. A lot. The reason you don't see a lot of reusable components is that it's really difficult to do conversion. Imagine if you needed a forum so you just grabbed the best forum Gem on Ruby and included it in your app with one line of code. Oh, by the way, its also fully clusterable because that's built in to and the same across all features. 0 code changes except the extra line to add it.
Built in scalable file system.
Sorry, disagree with this one too. This is not in the domain of Rails, but in extensions to Ruby and Rails. As such it is fully supported today.
This is one that I just can't understand why you don't agree with this. Sure you can have a scalable file system but you have to choose which one and then you can't change it easily. Its okay for ActiveRecord to abstract databases (which everybody thinks is a good idea) but the file system interfaces are different for every system? Just like in ActiveRecord you develop an app for ANY database but WHICH database to use is a deployment issue not a development issue). File systems should be the same way.
Rails has a lot of problems mixed in with a lot of greatness. For a great many projects, its greatness overcomes its probems.
Its biggest problem, IMHO, is that it does not grow well with the needs of a developer over time. Some things:
* Doesn't scale well
* Not easy to do anything outside the Rails world
I had a conversation with Ezra back when he was starting Merb, and I remember the large resistance to the idea that there were problems with Rails at all. As Merb got released and then popular, it was clear that there are holes in Rails (yes I know they are merging).
At about the same time, I started my own framework (the Caffeine framework now the Go framework) which has not been made open yet (and is not complete yet), but there are several issues that it addresses which could help (a) improve Rails or (b) create other frameworks that can fill holes. I'll mention some of the ideas below.
Note that the original goal was to use Rails for our "very cool application" (tm). Unfortunately we have some pretty lofty goals and Rails turned out to be the wrong tool. I am the CEO of a successful Internet company CityMax (about 30 employees) so I do have experience with the problems that happen after launch and success. They are not the same problems as during the startup phase.
Here are some things that an ideal framework has that I believe are missing or lacking in Rails. Again, I do want to stress that Rails has greatness and that I really respect its creator. That said, I think frameworks can grow to another level.
# Built in scalability and clustering. Should require zero changes (except some configuration) to go from single database to a cluster of databases. # Reusable code. If you build a feature (like a message board) for one application, that same code should be reusable in another app with zero code changes. It should also be reusable multiple times in the same application. For example, a blog app might use the message board in each blog but there might also be a support message board for the whole system. # Built in scalable file system. The file should be storable in local, Amazon S3, MogileFS, network share or whatever. Directories can be mapped to any file store (e.g. temp directories might be local, permanent storage might be S3 and archives might be a network share). Should be easy to remap directories and migrate from one data store to the other. # No magic. Hate it. Makes it hard to figure out and debug the code. # Custom field types for database, particularly the ability to insert files and images into a database record. The actual files and images are stored in the scalable file system and automatically managed (basically automatic garbage collection for files). # An image field type where you can change the image sizes (e.g. thumbnail, preview, full size) at will and images are automatically regenerated in those sizes the first time they are needed. This is one of those problems that comes out as you get bigger. Say your shopping cart app stores images in 3 sizes. Now you have 10 million products and you want to add another size. Without this, you are basically stuck with the decision you made at the start. # Make easy things easy and make hard things easy. In Rails, the solution is usually to memorize the option that allows you to do what you want. With the right design, the problems should be solvable using just Ruby and the framework. This helps keep the framework light and easy to learn over time. # Discoverable. The framework needs to be easy to figure out on ones own. Merb was more like this. Rails was less. # Multi-threading. This was one of the primary reasons I didn't want to use Rails originally. I understand that threading is in Rails 2 now but I'm not sure how good it is. # CouchDB. Okay, this feature is a little cutting edge but the biggest issue after launch is migrating the database. Add a new feature that requires a new column on a table with a bajillion records and you're doing many long midnight runs
Using an SSD in a desktop is an affordable fantastic upgrade if you configure it like this:
* A small 32 GB SSD as your main drive for software * A larger (perhaps terabyte) hard drive as your data drive * Configure My Documents (or your home directory) to the terabyte drive.
I found a good performing MOBI SSD driving for $220 for 32 GB. My computer boots in 30 seconds from power on. Everything is snappier and starts faster (especially Eclipse) and as a bonus, my data drive is nice and clean.
As a bonus, OS reinstalls can be done without affecting any of your data because it sits on a separate drive. This wasn't the intended reason for splitting the data but it has a nice organizational side effect.
Actually, I've only used around 14 GB of space on my SSD but I wanted at least 32 GB so I didn't have to worry about it.
One thing I did notice though was that writes were slower. The specs on the drive didn't show that to be the case but for some reason my database writes happened at half the speed during my test units. Random reads on the other hand (e.g. bootup and software loading) happen incredibly fast. For this reason, the split between installed software and data makes even more sense since loading software is made mostly of random reads and no writes.
Planet Earth. Seriously, this is one of the best looking hi-def titles out there. Simply gorgeous and a good watch as well. I use it as a demo when people come over and it blows everyone away.
If you can only have one hi-def title, this is it.
I take it that this is a lot like using a muscle you've never consciously used before. For example, when I first started taking dance lessons, I found it VERY hard to do things that seemed like they should be easy. Moving specific parts of your body in isolation is a lot harder than it should be. Especially if they are muscles you aren't used to using in your daily life.
Similarly, I think if these products ever become popular, there will be a generation of people who will find using them completely natural. Perhaps even to the point where they can be used in place of physical inputs like typing at the keyboard or using a mouse and not just gaming.
And since you aren't limited by your finger/hand's ability to move, ultimately they might be faster for input than traditional methods.
There is a very good reason that constants are not constants which relates primarily to the way the Ruby is "compiled." I put "compiled" in quotes because as Ruby users know, there is actually no difference between compile time and run-time. There is, however, a phase where you load the code in from your Ruby files at which point the classes are defined through executable statements. Constants are usually defined in classes at this point as well.
If you couldn't redefine constants, the second time you loaded a file you would throw errors. The reason why you would reload files is in a running development environment such as a framework like Rails or Merb. I also have a web framework (currently private but possibly we'll open source later) so I know this issue pretty intimately.
To clarify, the way it works is this: You are viewing a web page through a Ruby framework. The page rendering code is in a class. You want to make a change to a class so you go to the file and edit it. This may include changes to a constant. When you view the page again (by hitting refresh), the Ruby framework checks to see if the file has changed. If the file has changed (e.g. the constant we changed), then the file gets reloaded. Although we don't want to be changing constants in production, the ability to change constants in development mode is valuable. The alternative is we have to restart the server. The fact that it throws a warning is actually a good compromise because it means it's not normal behavior, but it is acceptable in certain circumstances.
I can't believe my original post got moderated a troll though. Especially since I never said he was on the other side of P2P at all. Only that one wouldn't want him on the other side.
The suggestion was that putting an unreleased film of his on P2P might not make him amenable to be on the P2P side of things. Since I wasn't sure where he stood now, I tried to make the original post neutral as to his current position.
My favorite part in the take-down notice is this:
Thank you. Note, though, it has been almost nine hours since we made the request, yet the posting is still up, with the number of hits growing logarithmically. I think what they meant to say was exponentially. Logarithmic growth means it is slowing down really fast.
Note: Seems whenever a take-down notice is given, the number of hits grows... exponentially.
Okay, I know this is completely off-topic but I'd really like to get some responses or some discussion going on what makes version control suck.
I mean, is it just me or is revision control software incredibly difficult to use? To put this into context, I've developed software that builds websites with integrated shopping cart, dozens of business features, email integration, domain name, integration, over 100,000 sites built with it, (blah blah blah) but I find revision control HARD.
It feels to me like there is a fundamentally easier way to do revision control. But, I haven't found it yet or know if it exists.
I guess for people coming from CVS, Subversion is easier. But with subversion, I just found it disgusting (and hard to manage) how it left all these invisible files all over my system and if I copied a directory, for example, there would be two copies linked to the same place in the repository. Also, some actions that I do directly to the files are very difficult to reconcile with the repository.
Since then, I've switched our development team to Perforce (which I like much better), but we still spend too much time on version control issues. With the number, speed of rollouts and need for easy accessibility to certain types of rollbacks (but not others), we are unusual. In fact, we ended up using a layout that hasn't been documented before but works well for us. That said, I still find version control hard.
Am I alone? Are there better solutions (open source or paid?) that you've found? I'd like to hear.
Slashdot Mirror
I think you'll like this song. It's about the problems MSIE developers have because of the lock in:
IE is being mean to me song
Full Disclosure: One of my employees, Scott, wrote this song (and I recorded it). The inspiration came from one of our dev teams that was constantly complaining about the problems the browser gave them.
I know I am completely biased but I have a high level of confidence that what I say is true even though it is subjective.
Many of my employees have told me that this is the best place they've worked at and I've had some of them break down in tears while they've said it. Other people we've invited to our Christmas dinner have said that the atmosphere is so positive in a way that they've never seen before. We play games for the last hour of every Friday for bonding. When we make sprint goals every 3/4 weeks, we go out somewhere and just play (canoeing, planetarium, movies). In our new division, which I've been running for the last couple years, we've never had anybody quit. At Christmas I offered to match donations to charities and I like philanthropy. Last few Christmas I've given things like PSPs, Nintento DSs and we have a gift giving competition with big prizes. I can't remember the last time anybody asked for a raise because I pay people fairly. We are all great friends yet we are all quite different. And the 2nd best company award in BC (Canada) is awarded based on what employees say in person to person interviews in private, not on what the owners say.
I agree that it is easy to deceive yourself and so I try to stay fairly conscious of the fact that it can happen. This is why I often ask for feedback and provide feedback. When people don't like what I'm doing, they do tend to tell me, and we always resolve it.
Here's the thing. I actually knew another financial advisor (he had a firm) that I felt was morally bankrupt. This was around the same time as I met the one I talked about above. The morally bankrupt one lost all his money and I know several of his employees who seem to all hate him. When I met my lawyer, the very nice and honest one I mentioned, he was not a partner and he is now a partner and very successful. In my personal experience, the morally upstanding people have succeeded in much higher proportion to those who haven't. I'm not saying there is a correlation between success and a moral compass but at the same time, I definitely haven't seen any signs of an inverse correlation as suggested by the Ferrari comment. The news may say different but all the morally upstanding Ferrari owners probably never make the news nor do they make for great movies.
Sunny
Wow, seriously?
How do this get modded up? It seems like the only kind of people that you can stereotype and prejudice safely are the rich. "Most" people that I know who own expensive cars or boats are amongst the nicest and most moral people I know. Not everything is like television or the movies.
I'm not sure whether it's worth admitting but I own a Ferrari and I would consider myself having a very high moral code. I treat my employees really well (One of my companies was rated 2nd best company to work for in BC), I pay all my business taxes (in an audit we were caught something like $50 for an accidental missing receipt out of millions) and I declare every last thing at the border.
I know that anecdote (especially personal anecdote) is not data but also my accountant is quite wealthy (he is one of the most morally upstanding accountants I know and somehow his clients are all rich. He is also a philanthropist.), my financial manager runs the Vancouver branch of a financial firm and he is upstanding. And believe it or not (and you probably won't), my lawyer is one of the nicest and one of the most honest and upstanding people I know.
Ok, so those people don't own a Ferrari (I actually don't know any other Ferrari owners), but one owns an expensive classic car and another owns a nice boat and they all could probably afford one.
So are there bad versions of the same? Of course. But being somewhat rich, I don't find that being rich has anything to do with being slimey. I know plenty of people who are both rich and poor who are morally bankrupt and morally upstanding. Generally speaking, in my circles though, the rich people are more morally upstanding as a proportion. That being said, my sample size is small and I'm sure I have a huge selection bias in who I associate with.
Sunny
At the voting booth, you are required to relinquish one of your stubs, either the real or fake one (it's up to you). The boss only has one to choose from.
Not sure if I like the entire idea, but this could be a workaround for your specific problem.
This is a response to these other postings.
Somebody asked this question on reddit
http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/9s3ww/would_you_hire_a_programmer_that_does_not_write/
And was answered with this:
http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/blob/master/2009-10-08/no_hire.md
No, I Wouldn't Hire a Programmer That Has No Interest in Programming Outside of Business Hours
The system works pretty well in Vancouver, Canada.
You can use coins as normal or you can dial a phone number to pay by credit card. Each meter has a number used to identify it.
The first time you use it, you have to register a license and your credit card number. After that, it remembers it based on your caller id I would imagine. You can register multiple cars no problem. It's a bit of a pain enter your license the first time you use it (it would be nice if you could try to use voice recognition first) but after the first time, it's pretty smooth.
The nice thing is that you don't have to go back to your car when you run out of time. To me, that is the biggest pain of street parking. Forget that you have to go half a block to pay for parking. If you have to run back from a few blocks, or in the middle of eating, that is even worse. With the system, we just call the number again and it asks if you want to extend your time. You just enter how many minutes.
I usually use it like this: (a) put in as many coins as I have and take a picture of the meter which has the id number with my iPhone (b) if I'm not back by the amount of time I got from the coins, I call and add time.
This is a fantastic idea and having used monitors in portrait mode (vertically oriented) instead of landscape mode, I can never go back. Better yet, there are many monitors that have a built in pivot. You can fit twice as many lines of code and still take very little desk space.
This monitor is a good example.
http://accessories.dell.com/sna/products/Monitors/productdetail.aspx?c=ca&l=en&s=bsd&cs=cabsdt1&sku=320-6272
It is 24" but if you scroll down, you will see how it probably doesn't take any more room than a 17" in landscape mode.
Seriously, as a developer, designer, writer, etc. this is one of the best upgrades you can make.
The assertion that historic jets could shoot this target down may be true, however, the calculation appears flawed because you are assuming that:
(a) the plane is shooting directly up which means it needs to be able to have a completely vertical trajectory at the flight ceiling (or at least that the gun pod can aim directly up which does not seem to be the case from the photos though I could be wrong)
(b) that the range of its gun pod when shooting directly up is not less due to the effects of, say, gravity. I'm guessing that the range estimation of 3000m is assuming a target that is roughly horizontal from the plane. I suppose there could be an increase in range due to reduced air resistance at high altitudes though?
That would imply that all Rails developers are idiots. If Oracle is the only DB where the DB supports clustering properly and someone needs clustering, he should use Oracle or he should find another business to work in since you are an idiot. You select the correct tool for the job.
Also, given that Oracle is, by a significant margin, the chosen database for critical enterprise stuff, if your 0% assertion is true, then Rails isn't used anywhere for important stuff.
That's a false dichotomy. Many Rails developers are really smart but they won't use Oracle for other reasons. The major roadblock with Oracle is not that it's the wrong tool, it's that it is not free (neither as in beer nor speech).
It isn't easy to convert a large software project, constantly in flux, to support clustering
If clustering is supported by the DB, yes it is. That is why it belongs in the DB realm.
I don't think we're disagreeing on this point. Your hypothesis is that if you have clustering in a db, then it is easy. I'm simply stating the fact that nobody uses dbs that support clustering with Ruby (MySQL supports clustering but it is an in-memory database). If clustering was well supported in open source databases, I'd agree with you. Also, it's not unheard of for ORMs to support clustering. Sequel, another Ruby ORM engine growing in popularity, has rudimentary support for clustering. I noticed that Rails 2 has implemented many ideas from Sequel already. I wouldn't be surprised, that ActiveRecord starts including some rudimentary support for sharding in the future as well.
Say you build a nice wiki app. Later you decide that would fit in well with your project manager. How much work would it take to get it to work? Normally. A lot.
No, it would not. Not the way I develop apps. I develop in a way where what I do is re-usable. I don't see what Rails have to do with that.
That's good for you. But how many OTHER people would be able to incorporate your code into their app. What if they wanted your wiki to support clustering on their open source database? What if they store their uploaded files in S3 and your wiki stores them in MogileFS or just a mapped drive? What you are really building then is a set of best practices that works for you. As an experienced Rails developer, perhaps this is everything that you need; however, most everyone has different deployment needs. What I'm really advocating is that all the same problems that people encounter simply be standardized. This is just like how ActiveRecord standardized database access.
It wasn't too long ago that in the Ruby world, you used a MySQL library, a PostgreSQL library, etc. Then your applications was locked into the database you developed for. ActiveRecord removes the ugliness associated with switching databases and it becomes about developing your app, not about DEPLOYING your app.
Convention over configuration is fine. I like it. But that's not the magic I'm talking about. ...
All the automatic method generation (method missing), autoloading based on names, conversions from singular to plural. That's what I mean by magic.
What surprises me is that you don't seem to understand that the two paragraphs quoted above are self-contradictory to a degree. The "magic" you don't like is either a core part of Rails (so you don't like Rails) or it is part of Convention over Configuration. Honestly, since it is documented, and well understood, I can't see why you think it is "magic".
Yeah, you're right, some of it is self-contradictory. Let me clarify better then. I don't like the magic that makes it hard to read the Rails code. You seem to not like the word magic. I'm not using it in an evil way. I think most Rails developers actually agree and know that there is a lot of magic in Rails. The problem is that there is
Before I respond, I just want to reiterate the I like Rails and that I really respect its creator; that said, a framework is just a tool and as such it can and should be improved and also that there are other ideas that are different (and sometimes even more radical) that work too.
zero changes ... to go from single database to a cluster of databases
Perhaps, or perhaps this isn't something that belongs in the application-server domain at all, but in the database driver domain. In other words, if you need a cluster of DBs, use a DB product that supports this seamlessly. I am not going to mention Oracle by name, but it would support what you are asking here I assume, depending on how the Rails/Oracle guys wrote the Ora driver for Rails. Never tried Rails with Oracle, but for all apps I have written lately, this is taken care of by the Ora driver.
I agree that clustering would be better solved in the database but I also wish my apps would just write themselves. Neither is realistic or true. The fact is, clustering right now (at least in open source) must be in the application or the framework (note MySQL clustering does not solve the issue). The number of Rails apps using Oracle as a backend are approaching 0%. With the choice between the developer having to write a clustering implementation for every different application and having the framework handle it, I would much rather have the solution in the framework.
The real problem is that if you don't design your app to use clustering at the beginning (which most people don't) then when they need it, it becomes a major issue. It isn't easy to convert a large software project, constantly in flux, to support clustering. Shouldn't you instead just focus on building your app and then when you need clustering, just flip a switch?
Reusable code.
Depending on how you do Rails, this is fully supported. Unless of course I am misunderstanding what you are asking. There is nothing in Rails that prevents you from creating re-usable code. Honestly.
You are misunderstanding but understandable so. Actually, I haven't seen any framework solve this problem so it's easy to not see what this really means and if so, if it is possible.
How many reusable features do you see out in the Rails world? I can't remember running across one (though perhaps there is some out there). This is because it takes a lot of work to make a feature reusable. If the framework is designed to not just support reusability (which any framework can do) but instead make it so that any feature you build is AUTOMATICALLY reusable, that is the difference.
Say you build a nice wiki app. Later you decide that would fit in well with your project manager. How much work would it take to get it to work? Normally. A lot. The reason you don't see a lot of reusable components is that it's really difficult to do conversion. Imagine if you needed a forum so you just grabbed the best forum Gem on Ruby and included it in your app with one line of code. Oh, by the way, its also fully clusterable because that's built in to and the same across all features. 0 code changes except the extra line to add it.
Built in scalable file system.
Sorry, disagree with this one too. This is not in the domain of Rails, but in extensions to Ruby and Rails. As such it is fully supported today.
This is one that I just can't understand why you don't agree with this. Sure you can have a scalable file system but you have to choose which one and then you can't change it easily. Its okay for ActiveRecord to abstract databases (which everybody thinks is a good idea) but the file system interfaces are different for every system? Just like in ActiveRecord you develop an app for ANY database but WHICH database to use is a deployment issue not a development issue). File systems should be the same way.
For
Rails has a lot of problems mixed in with a lot of greatness. For a great many projects, its greatness overcomes its probems.
Its biggest problem, IMHO, is that it does not grow well with the needs of a developer over time. Some things:
* Doesn't scale well
* Not easy to do anything outside the Rails world
I had a conversation with Ezra back when he was starting Merb, and I remember the large resistance to the idea that there were problems with Rails at all. As Merb got released and then popular, it was clear that there are holes in Rails (yes I know they are merging).
At about the same time, I started my own framework (the Caffeine framework now the Go framework) which has not been made open yet (and is not complete yet), but there are several issues that it addresses which could help (a) improve Rails or (b) create other frameworks that can fill holes. I'll mention some of the ideas below.
Note that the original goal was to use Rails for our "very cool application" (tm). Unfortunately we have some pretty lofty goals and Rails turned out to be the wrong tool. I am the CEO of a successful Internet company CityMax (about 30 employees) so I do have experience with the problems that happen after launch and success. They are not the same problems as during the startup phase.
Here are some things that an ideal framework has that I believe are missing or lacking in Rails. Again, I do want to stress that Rails has greatness and that I really respect its creator. That said, I think frameworks can grow to another level.
# Built in scalability and clustering. Should require zero changes (except some configuration) to go from single database to a cluster of databases.
# Reusable code. If you build a feature (like a message board) for one application, that same code should be reusable in another app with zero code changes. It should also be reusable multiple times in the same application. For example, a blog app might use the message board in each blog but there might also be a support message board for the whole system.
# Built in scalable file system. The file should be storable in local, Amazon S3, MogileFS, network share or whatever. Directories can be mapped to any file store (e.g. temp directories might be local, permanent storage might be S3 and archives might be a network share). Should be easy to remap directories and migrate from one data store to the other.
# No magic. Hate it. Makes it hard to figure out and debug the code.
# Custom field types for database, particularly the ability to insert files and images into a database record. The actual files and images are stored in the scalable file system and automatically managed (basically automatic garbage collection for files).
# An image field type where you can change the image sizes (e.g. thumbnail, preview, full size) at will and images are automatically regenerated in those sizes the first time they are needed. This is one of those problems that comes out as you get bigger. Say your shopping cart app stores images in 3 sizes. Now you have 10 million products and you want to add another size. Without this, you are basically stuck with the decision you made at the start.
# Make easy things easy and make hard things easy. In Rails, the solution is usually to memorize the option that allows you to do what you want. With the right design, the problems should be solvable using just Ruby and the framework. This helps keep the framework light and easy to learn over time.
# Discoverable. The framework needs to be easy to figure out on ones own. Merb was more like this. Rails was less.
# Multi-threading. This was one of the primary reasons I didn't want to use Rails originally. I understand that threading is in Rails 2 now but I'm not sure how good it is.
# CouchDB. Okay, this feature is a little cutting edge but the biggest issue after launch is migrating the database. Add a new feature that requires a new column on a table with a bajillion records and you're doing many long midnight runs
Using an SSD in a desktop is an affordable fantastic upgrade if you configure it like this:
* A small 32 GB SSD as your main drive for software
* A larger (perhaps terabyte) hard drive as your data drive
* Configure My Documents (or your home directory) to the terabyte drive.
I found a good performing MOBI SSD driving for $220 for 32 GB. My computer boots in 30 seconds from power on. Everything is snappier and starts faster (especially Eclipse) and as a bonus, my data drive is nice and clean.
As a bonus, OS reinstalls can be done without affecting any of your data because it sits on a separate drive. This wasn't the intended reason for splitting the data but it has a nice organizational side effect.
Actually, I've only used around 14 GB of space on my SSD but I wanted at least 32 GB so I didn't have to worry about it.
One thing I did notice though was that writes were slower. The specs on the drive didn't show that to be the case but for some reason my database writes happened at half the speed during my test units. Random reads on the other hand (e.g. bootup and software loading) happen incredibly fast. For this reason, the split between installed software and data makes even more sense since loading software is made mostly of random reads and no writes.
Yeah, there is marked improvement when looking at the less testosterone driven fight sequences like this nail biting scene from TOS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1eFdUSnaQM
Planet Earth. Seriously, this is one of the best looking hi-def titles out there. Simply gorgeous and a good watch as well. I use it as a demo when people come over and it blows everyone away.
If you can only have one hi-def title, this is it.
I take it that this is a lot like using a muscle you've never consciously used before. For example, when I first started taking dance lessons, I found it VERY hard to do things that seemed like they should be easy. Moving specific parts of your body in isolation is a lot harder than it should be. Especially if they are muscles you aren't used to using in your daily life.
Similarly, I think if these products ever become popular, there will be a generation of people who will find using them completely natural. Perhaps even to the point where they can be used in place of physical inputs like typing at the keyboard or using a mouse and not just gaming.
And since you aren't limited by your finger/hand's ability to move, ultimately they might be faster for input than traditional methods.
There is a very good reason that constants are not constants which relates primarily to the way the Ruby is "compiled." I put "compiled" in quotes because as Ruby users know, there is actually no difference between compile time and run-time. There is, however, a phase where you load the code in from your Ruby files at which point the classes are defined through executable statements. Constants are usually defined in classes at this point as well.
If you couldn't redefine constants, the second time you loaded a file you would throw errors. The reason why you would reload files is in a running development environment such as a framework like Rails or Merb. I also have a web framework (currently private but possibly we'll open source later) so I know this issue pretty intimately.
To clarify, the way it works is this: You are viewing a web page through a Ruby framework. The page rendering code is in a class. You want to make a change to a class so you go to the file and edit it. This may include changes to a constant. When you view the page again (by hitting refresh), the Ruby framework checks to see if the file has changed. If the file has changed (e.g. the constant we changed), then the file gets reloaded. Although we don't want to be changing constants in production, the ability to change constants in development mode is valuable. The alternative is we have to restart the server. The fact that it throws a warning is actually a good compromise because it means it's not normal behavior, but it is acceptable in certain circumstances.
Interesting, except that it's one laptop for $200 and two laptops for $400.
You can still profit but its more like:
1. Buy two laptops for $400
2. Give one to charity
3. Sell one for $400
4. Break even on cash
5. Get a $200 charity tax receipt
Your net up is a tax receipt which has value which varies depending on how much you pay in taxes.
Don't know if they thought it was not forgotten about but Picasa is the best photo organizer I've found and it's free.
Though they're specials, both Wal Mart and Best Buy are offering HD DVD players for $100.
Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player: $100, this Friday, Wal-Mart
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/01/toshiba-hd-a2-hd-dvd-player-100-this-friday-wal-mart/
Best Buy offers Toshiba HD-A2 for $100
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/01/best-buy-offers-the-toshiba-hd-a2-for-100-too-and-other-hd-dv/
Thanks for the clarification.
I can't believe my original post got moderated a troll though. Especially since I never said he was on the other side of P2P at all. Only that one wouldn't want him on the other side.
The suggestion was that putting an unreleased film of his on P2P might not make him amenable to be on the P2P side of things. Since I wasn't sure where he stood now, I tried to make the original post neutral as to his current position.
Anyways, Ouch.
Whether you like him or not, believe what he says or not, you have to agree that Michael Moore is influential.
If you are for P2P, I'm not sure if this is the guy you would want on the other side of the debate.
But here's a few other points to clarify.
To be fair, they are easy to confuse. I have in the past.
Note: Seems whenever a take-down notice is given, the number of hits grows... exponentially.
His middle finger?
Okay, I know this is completely off-topic but I'd really like to get some responses or some discussion going on what makes version control suck.
I mean, is it just me or is revision control software incredibly difficult to use? To put this into context, I've developed software that builds websites with integrated shopping cart, dozens of business features, email integration, domain name, integration, over 100,000 sites built with it, (blah blah blah) but I find revision control HARD.
It feels to me like there is a fundamentally easier way to do revision control. But, I haven't found it yet or know if it exists.
I guess for people coming from CVS, Subversion is easier. But with subversion, I just found it disgusting (and hard to manage) how it left all these invisible files all over my system and if I copied a directory, for example, there would be two copies linked to the same place in the repository. Also, some actions that I do directly to the files are very difficult to reconcile with the repository.
Since then, I've switched our development team to Perforce (which I like much better), but we still spend too much time on version control issues. With the number, speed of rollouts and need for easy accessibility to certain types of rollbacks (but not others), we are unusual. In fact, we ended up using a layout that hasn't been documented before but works well for us. That said, I still find version control hard.
Am I alone? Are there better solutions (open source or paid?) that you've found? I'd like to hear.