Re:Often programmers know very little...
on
Flash, Meet Sparkle
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I really hate that term "GUI designer." GUI designers are no better at listening to end users than coders are.
The best way to get a decent gui design is to force the coders to talk to the end users. Have the coders develop their skills at shutting their pie-holes and listening to the people who are the most pissed off with what they're using currently.
Replacing that process with "gui designers" is a pure waste of time. A "gui designer" is no more likely to have better listening or people skills than anyone else.
The idea that the best use of your coders is locking them up in a room to write code is dumb. If you take them on the road half the time to talk with customers, they'll only be writing code the other half of the time, but it will be with the insight that comes from talking with the end user, so they'll be more productive overall.
Time to end the stereotype that all coders/programmers lack soft skills.
Re:How can you vouche for the security of this?
on
Flash, Meet Sparkle
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Like it or not, Microsoft has started to take security very seriously. Their new products are built far better than their previous ones
No, Microsoft does not take security any more seriously than in the past. They have to be kicked and dragged into continuing to provide security fixes for NT, claiming "sorry, its 5 years old - we don't support it any more". Would you take that from any other manufacturer of any other product? Like, say, your car? Or your fridge? Or your toilet?
Microsoft pays lip service to security. That's all. Their "big security push" that they so proudly declaimed, where they spent a "whole month" concentrating on making their people more aware of the problems of buffer overflows, etc., was pure marketing bullshit. You can't change decades of irresponsible behaviour with one month of rah-rah rally-the-troops crap.
If they REALLY wanted to concentrate on security in any meaningful way, they wouldn't continually fragment their own resources and create even more maintenance problems (7 versions of Vista? Fucking idiots - they can't even maintain what they've got now - this is a company that doesn't care about quality, or customer needs. Its ALL marketing, all the time).
If they really cared about security, then they'd stop producing standards-breaking stuff (Internet Exploder) that requires web app developers to work 10x as hard to achieve cross-browser functionality, at the expense of resources that these same developers could be devoting to verifying the rest of their code.
So, no, Microsoft will never really be interested in security. After all, security will remove both any perceived need to stay on the forced upgrade path, or to even use their software. It's not in their economic interest to write secure apps.
Re:How can you vouche for the security of this?
on
Flash, Meet Sparkle
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
It's going to have to have access to the local filesystem (it's not just a web thing - its for scripting/describing the user interface) to read any local xaml files. It'll also have access to the registry to be able to do such things as save screen positions/layout, etc.
Now, do you really want anyone to be able to read and write to your fs through an x(a)ml file? So, if it can do that, and since it is designed to "script" the native UI, what is to keep someone from cloning critical parts of the Vista interface, and fooling you into entering, say, your user name and password into their app? Or tricking you into installing other malware? Or getting you to agree to deleting your root partition when you think you're clicking on "save"?
Like I said, it opens up new Vistas, literally.
Re:Sparkle is not a flash killer
on
Flash, Meet Sparkle
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· Score: 1, Interesting
Think of it as a flash front-end to a full Win32 API and data-access
Sparkle says "Where did we send your data to today? Wouldn't you like to know? Bwhahaha!"
So, Sparkle is a Windows Vista virus/trojan toolkit for non-programmers. The PHBs should love it, as it will make outsourcing all those P3N15/V14GR4 ads to India *so* much more profitable.
We'll be affected because this same "shiny new thing" will be THE preferred vector for trojans for Vista. Even if you're not running Vista, you're going to be affected by the fallout (more zombie boxes pumping spam, for example).
Oh, well - time to invest in anti-spam and anti-virus software companies.
Re:What sort of security vulnerabilities..
on
Flash, Meet Sparkle
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· Score: 1
This (sparkle) isn't just for the browser. Its for all of Vista. It literally opens up new Vistas for viruses, trojans, and worms (bad pun, but its accurate).
This will make XP look like a hardened concrete bunker in terms of security (hey, hopefully they'll backport it, so XP users don't have to upgrade to share the pain).
Sparkle is designed to appeal to the same idiots who think power-point presentations are the best tool for presenting an argument (they're also easily swayed by shiny bright objects, if you catch my drift).
"Look people, you too can program." Even though they can't. This will let them pretend. Of course, it also will provide Microsoft with another revenue streem, for MCSE - Microsoft Certified Sparkle Engineer.
So, how long before the first Sparkle virus, the first Sparkle trojan, and the first Sparkle worm? Lets just say it opens up new vistas.
Designers tend to get a bit out of hand and design things that are next to impossible to implement with current development platforms. Sparkle allows a designer to design the actual application by giving them direct access to the same objects the developers work with. The designer has complete control of the appearance and behavior of the controls without writing a single piece of code.
Riiiight... the same morons who make impractical designs in the first place and don't know shit about coding, design, etc., are going to have even more fun foisting their crap on us. Fuck, why doesn't someone just declare Microsoft a terrorist organisation and be done with it?
Hey, that's a great idea for on-the-road sales calls, when you want to sketch out customer mods, etc. I'm stealing it!
Along with a digital camera to photog it (gives me an excuse to buy one of those fancy ones with some bad-ass optical zoom goodness finally), this is going to be damn helpful.
Well, its politer than saying "while taking a shit", which is where we all end up doing at least some of our important reading/research/whatever.
Inspiration strikes when you least expect it. Guess that's why they call it "inspiration" - you're not trying to think up a solution, and it comes to you at the oddest time.
So, yeah, ditch the "cool setup", keep lots of paper and pencils handy (and not just so you can be like the constipated mathematician, and work it out with a pencil), and realize that time away from the desk is probably at least as important than time at your desk.
My favourite setup, way back in the dark ages, was a dual-monitor (Monochrome Hercules 80x25 and a VGA, also in 80x25) using Borland C 3.1 in dual-monitor mode. You don't need a fancy graphics setup to write code - its all in plain text, after all.
I still emulate the old way - a few terms running vim for quick-and-dirty edits, a few shells to compile/move/copy/whatever, and a copy of kate with the latest project files.
Too many fancy tools get in the way of the job at hand, at least for me.
The reason it was modded informative instead of funny is because of the b0rked mod system.
Posts modded funny don't get mod points. So, if you get 5 +1 Funny mods, and then 5 -1 Troll mods, your karma is hit with a -5.
Happen too many times the same day, and you go to -20, at which your account is permanently locked out from posting, just because someone didn't have a sense of humour.
The solution would be to allow +1 Funny to actually result in a +1 increment to your karma, instead of just raising your posts visibility.
It has its charms though, namely that you learn not to rely on web-based and other graphical configuration tools (Yeah, I'm looking at you SuSE! Stick your YAST up your A...!).
You know that YaST works from the console as well, right? Oh, you didn't? Well, it does, and its a lot quicker than using the graphical crap that takes so long to do anything.
So get rid of the city cores and move evrything to the suburbs.
We're seeing that anyway, with "donut cities" - cities where the urban center is a hole (in more ways than one), but the burbs have the jobs and the people.
Considering that the burbs also have more surface area than the city, it makes sense in terms of long-term development. Cities have reached (and passed) their sustainable limits.
I would just observe that men do whatever they have to do in order to appear cool for women. Most men feel they have to buy a car because most women will think they are losers if they don't.
It's not off-topic, because it explains why people drive gas-guzzlers, which helped cause the gas shortage, which leads to telecommuting to save fuel.
It's no mystery why the typical gas-guzzler is referred to as a "penis extender" by car salesmen.
So why can't Dr Brown (the USian) publish his discovery immediately and let the community to chip in and further investigate the finding?'re ignoring the REAL reason.
When alerted, the White House asked if there was life on it, and was informed that it was a dead body.
We all know that, in the wake of Iraq and New Orleans, there's a "no dead bodies" rule.
A fab costs several gigabucks (that's right - billions). Its not like Pringles, where you can produce chips for under a cent a piece, where 10 pounds of lard, a pound of salt, and 1 pureed potato gives you a hundred bucks of chips.
Point I was getting at is that 8-track stuff I have is pretty hard to read when my players are all broke, and I don't feel like shelling out to get obsolete equipment to play them anymore
Look for an older relative... if they're in their 60s to 90s you can be sure they've got 8-track, 78 rpm record players, etc. Be warned, though - they'll want you to rip their old shellac 12" records to cd so they can play them on their dvd player.
4 brothers who were opticians decided to retire to breed cattle. They called their ranch "Focus".
Why?
Because "focus" is where the sons raise meat/suns rays meet.
Okay, all together,... groan!
- or this one -
You learned this in math or geometry:
An amerindian woman is sitting on a hippopotamus hide. Her sisters are sitting on cow hides. The combined weight of the male offspring of the sisters is the same as the single male offspring of the first woman.
It's a restatement of the pythagorean theorum:
The son of the squaw on the hippopotomus hide is equal to the sons of the squaws on the other two hides.
Yeah, but without a proper analysis, there's no way of telling whether the noise is coming from the trolls or from people posting AC. My bet is that the troll posts contribute more, in terms of both diversity of opinion (outside-the-box thinking, etc) and in just plain entertainment (how many posts have been mis-marked troll because someone misses the joke)?
It would be interesting to do a real study on the s/n ratio, and determine just how many users it takes to post half the logged-in comments.
Slashdot Mirror
The best way to get a decent gui design is to force the coders to talk to the end users. Have the coders develop their skills at shutting their pie-holes and listening to the people who are the most pissed off with what they're using currently.
Replacing that process with "gui designers" is a pure waste of time. A "gui designer" is no more likely to have better listening or people skills than anyone else.
The idea that the best use of your coders is locking them up in a room to write code is dumb. If you take them on the road half the time to talk with customers, they'll only be writing code the other half of the time, but it will be with the insight that comes from talking with the end user, so they'll be more productive overall.
Time to end the stereotype that all coders/programmers lack soft skills.
Microsoft pays lip service to security. That's all. Their "big security push" that they so proudly declaimed, where they spent a "whole month" concentrating on making their people more aware of the problems of buffer overflows, etc., was pure marketing bullshit. You can't change decades of irresponsible behaviour with one month of rah-rah rally-the-troops crap.
If they REALLY wanted to concentrate on security in any meaningful way, they wouldn't continually fragment their own resources and create even more maintenance problems (7 versions of Vista? Fucking idiots - they can't even maintain what they've got now - this is a company that doesn't care about quality, or customer needs. Its ALL marketing, all the time).
If they really cared about security, then they'd stop producing standards-breaking stuff (Internet Exploder) that requires web app developers to work 10x as hard to achieve cross-browser functionality, at the expense of resources that these same developers could be devoting to verifying the rest of their code.
So, no, Microsoft will never really be interested in security. After all, security will remove both any perceived need to stay on the forced upgrade path, or to even use their software. It's not in their economic interest to write secure apps.
Now, do you really want anyone to be able to read and write to your fs through an x(a)ml file? So, if it can do that, and since it is designed to "script" the native UI, what is to keep someone from cloning critical parts of the Vista interface, and fooling you into entering, say, your user name and password into their app? Or tricking you into installing other malware? Or getting you to agree to deleting your root partition when you think you're clicking on "save"?
Like I said, it opens up new Vistas, literally.
So, Sparkle is a Windows Vista virus/trojan toolkit for non-programmers. The PHBs should love it, as it will make outsourcing all those P3N15/V14GR4 ads to India *so* much more profitable.
Oh, well - time to invest in anti-spam and anti-virus software companies.
This will make XP look like a hardened concrete bunker in terms of security (hey, hopefully they'll backport it, so XP users don't have to upgrade to share the pain).
Sparkle is designed to appeal to the same idiots who think power-point presentations are the best tool for presenting an argument (they're also easily swayed by shiny bright objects, if you catch my drift).
"Look people, you too can program." Even though they can't. This will let them pretend. Of course, it also will provide Microsoft with another revenue streem, for MCSE - Microsoft Certified Sparkle Engineer.
So, how long before the first Sparkle virus, the first Sparkle trojan, and the first Sparkle worm? Lets just say it opens up new vistas.
Now I'm gonna need SparkleBlock as well as FlashBlock. More browser plugin bloat.
Along with a digital camera to photog it (gives me an excuse to buy one of those fancy ones with some bad-ass optical zoom goodness finally), this is going to be damn helpful.
Thanks.
Inspiration strikes when you least expect it. Guess that's why they call it "inspiration" - you're not trying to think up a solution, and it comes to you at the oddest time.
So, yeah, ditch the "cool setup", keep lots of paper and pencils handy (and not just so you can be like the constipated mathematician, and work it out with a pencil), and realize that time away from the desk is probably at least as important than time at your desk.
My favourite setup, way back in the dark ages, was a dual-monitor (Monochrome Hercules 80x25 and a VGA, also in 80x25) using Borland C 3.1 in dual-monitor mode. You don't need a fancy graphics setup to write code - its all in plain text, after all.
I still emulate the old way - a few terms running vim for quick-and-dirty edits, a few shells to compile/move/copy/whatever, and a copy of kate with the latest project files.
Too many fancy tools get in the way of the job at hand, at least for me.
Posts modded funny don't get mod points. So, if you get 5 +1 Funny mods, and then 5 -1 Troll mods, your karma is hit with a -5.
Happen too many times the same day, and you go to -20, at which your account is permanently locked out from posting, just because someone didn't have a sense of humour.
The solution would be to allow +1 Funny to actually result in a +1 increment to your karma, instead of just raising your posts visibility.
http://www.chait.net/cgaindex.php?p=ASIN_B0002ILKN Q&page=2
But, yeah, go slack go!
We're seeing that anyway, with "donut cities" - cities where the urban center is a hole (in more ways than one), but the burbs have the jobs and the people.
Considering that the burbs also have more surface area than the city, it makes sense in terms of long-term development. Cities have reached (and passed) their sustainable limits.
It's no mystery why the typical gas-guzzler is referred to as a "penis extender" by car salesmen.
When alerted, the White House asked if there was life on it, and was informed that it was a dead body.
We all know that, in the wake of Iraq and New Orleans, there's a "no dead bodies" rule.
A fab costs several gigabucks (that's right - billions). Its not like Pringles, where you can produce chips for under a cent a piece, where 10 pounds of lard, a pound of salt, and 1 pureed potato gives you a hundred bucks of chips.
- or this one -
You learned this in math or geometry:
It's a restatement of the pythagorean theorum:So, back on=-topic:
- buy usb keychain
- copy your custom worm/trojan/virus du jour to it
- return to store
- PROFIT!
How much you wanna bet it hasn't already been done? - or -But for marketing purposes, they're "segmented" like this:
I prefer santa - makes people think a bit harder before they "get" it. Satan is still too tied into religion.
It would be interesting to do a real study on the s/n ratio, and determine just how many users it takes to post half the logged-in comments.