Those people are just going up for a short period of time. Try doing your day to day things holding your breath 80% of the time. You are not going to die from the lack of oxygen but you wouldn't be effective.
>Software Engineers really do not have professional exams the same way say civil or mechanical engineers and are not generally legally licensed. (At least in the US.)
http://www.computer.org/certification/
This is given by the IEEE.
>software is a relatively young field
Yes I agree and that leads to problems that you mentioned about standards and level of quality. Yet its still is "regulated"; http://www.computer.org/tab/seprof/c ode.htm
>Encrypted for a very good price, or full blown souce for lots more. Because the customization work was quoted at under 1/4 the cost of buying the source, it was a very good deal.
Did you ever wonder why it was such a good deal for you? Usually because its a better deal for them. Even if you didn't have a problem with the install script, they have you when you want ANYTHING changed. Minor bugs, major additional features, they can now charge you anything. What are you going to do about it?
>Seeing as the company who wrote the software referred me to this programmer, I thought it was a safe bet.
Safe bet for what? Why should you trust the original programmer?
>I find that the sort of people who say this, just are not all that strong at self-learning, and so assume that no one else is either.
No, as in Engineers should not be learning non-industry standard methods/techniques and applying them for a job. Its ok to learn new things outside of a class room but the information should be with others (reviewed by peers as in a journal, communicated with peers to obtain a second professional opinion). Learning should not be done "by themselves". It should not be; "Gee, I though of a great new idea of how to mix concrete. Lets see how it works on my next skyscraper."
>Most software engineers I know are great guys who learn by themselves. Most "real" engineers I know hate their jobs.
Software Engineers should not have learned things by themselves. They went to post-secondary school (usually the hard ones), taken professional exams and are legally licensed to work in an area. The "real" have legal responsiblities (to the client and the public) for their work and that legal responsiblity has weight.
And I know "real" engineers who love their jobs. So what?
Are you talking about a licensed Professional Software Engineer?
If you are, I doubt that you've had any real world experience. Being one is not some holy grail, more like "more titles to help management feel better"
>So, which "performance" are we optimizing for? Memory footprint? Disk access? CPU utilization? Network utilization?
Thats a good question.
You need to find out that at the start of programming. And yes, its difficult but there are ways to help things. It won't be perfect but it can't be an after thought.
The question was about Dollar Cost Averaging not being the best method of investment (vs. investing it all at once).
Someone replies with a point which I believe is key to investing;
I have not read that paper or anything like it, but ignorance has never stopped me before from commenting. I am completely sure that if I did some monte carlo simulations it would show that statistically dollar cost averaging is not the optimal strategy. For example, if I understand your issue, an investor has a bunch of money and he can either invest it now or parcel it out over a number of periods. The monte carlo says invest it all now.
WRONG. To hell with that monte carlo simulation. Damn it to hell. Not even one of the top circles, but damn it down to the greatest level of pain and suffering. A few years ago (you can fill in the dates easily) there was a very long period of high stock returns. We had relatives fearful of the market, stocks sound scary and all. And each year that went by we would tell them of our double digit returns even in the indexes, while they were getting CD rates. This went on year after year. We kept telling them to invest. Finally, they announced they opened a brokerage account and invested a significant part of their money in the Vanguard Growth Index mutual fund.
And, you can guess what happened. This was about 2 months before the crash. I have to see these relatives weekly, and weekly I am reminded how they finally listened to my professional advice. Great. I would never never never never never never never again suggest that someone invest without hedging it somewhat by stringing out the investments over a period of time. Difference between real life and the damn monte carlo. Damn damn monte carlo.
>The company doesn't actually DO anything other than sue other companies right?
Lawyers do the same thing too.
Its a company that does something to provide a service. Just because you don't like what they do or think they should be making money for it, doesn't mean that they shouldn't exist.
I don't like the music a record company produces, in fact I hate it. Should they not exist?
RIM does use the cell phone network as a communication platform between the BES and the units. And the key, as you mentioned, is that the server "pushes" to the unit to inform the user of any new information (such as a new email had arrived).
>and pride of Canadian citizens is difficult to overstate.
1. This happens to any local economy, not just RIM/Waterloo. For example; Hamilton/Stelco, GM+Ford/Detroit, Big Government/Washington DC, Inco(?)/Sudbury.
2. The "pride of Canadian citizens" are not wrapped up in this. Do you have pride in what happens to B.C. softwood lumber?
Right now, you retire/get paid when you are 65. What happens an immortality pill becomes available?
I would suspect it would be first for the rich. And they don't need SS.
Before it hits the unwashed masses, many laws would be changed. 20 years for manslaughter? No problem, since it would be like 1 year right now.
Ok, even if you retire in 900 years from now, why the hell would you put money into it? Its money away for eons in the future, just from simple interest, you would have enough just putting a couple of dollars into it. And in about 100 years from now, no one will be collecting (or just a small percentage will).
Of course this ignores inflaction and wage pressures from a very large workforce.
Its 150 million small accounts with lots of work involved (advertising/accnt management/servicing 150 million low-worth individuals).
They wanted the SS to be kept as one big account and invest in the stock market. Split the account in say seven ways (for each big brokerage) and make the market go zoom!
"Take a look at what this new standard is all about and what we can expect from it in the future!"
Dear slashdot editors, I think you didn't have to include this sentence from the submitter. This is not some highschool newspaper or corporate newsletter from HR. Don't take this as approval for any other sentences that makes reference to Linux in a non-Linux story or a question that just needs a "Yes/No" answer.
>he's saying (and I agree) that software patents harm the industry as a whole.
Does he really care about the industry? He cares about it because he cares about his company first. If his company became the entire industry (was a monopoly) do you think that he would care about the other companies who used to make up of the industry? Do you think that he would avoid sales or profits (short or long term) so other companies in the industry can benefit?
Why do you care about the industry? Because it provides you a job? No, a company does that. Because you like programming? You don't need commerical ventures to do this, its can be a hobby?
>I read that as he'd accept a private list solely for internal discussion in the very short-term;
So for vendor-sec it bad if they keep things secret for a timeperiod defined by them but its ok to keep it secret for a short-term as defined by Linus? This makes things different because we trust one person?
>He believes in full disclosure of bugs, not for any philosophical bullshit or imaginary right-to-know,
No he doesn't.
From the article: "I'd be very happy with a 'private' list in the sense that people wouldn't feel pressured to fix it that day," Torvalds wrote. "And I think it makes sense to have some policy where we don't necessarily make them public immediately in order to give people the time to discuss them.
Slashdot Mirror
Those people are just going up for a short period of time. Try doing your day to day things holding your breath 80% of the time. You are not going to die from the lack of oxygen but you wouldn't be effective.
>Software Engineers really do not have professional exams the same way say civil or mechanical engineers and are not generally legally licensed. (At least in the US.)
c ode.htm
http://www.computer.org/certification/
This is given by the IEEE.
>software is a relatively young field
Yes I agree and that leads to problems that you mentioned about standards and level of quality. Yet its still is "regulated";
http://www.computer.org/tab/seprof/
This is advice after-the-fact. Sorry.
>Encrypted for a very good price, or full blown souce for lots more. Because the customization work was quoted at under 1/4 the cost of buying the source, it was a very good deal.
Did you ever wonder why it was such a good deal for you? Usually because its a better deal for them. Even if you didn't have a problem with the install script, they have you when you want ANYTHING changed. Minor bugs, major additional features, they can now charge you anything. What are you going to do about it?
>Seeing as the company who wrote the software referred me to this programmer, I thought it was a safe bet.
Safe bet for what? Why should you trust the original programmer?
>I find that the sort of people who say this, just are not all that strong at self-learning, and so assume that no one else is either.
No, as in Engineers should not be learning non-industry standard methods/techniques and applying them for a job. Its ok to learn new things outside of a class room but the information should be with others (reviewed by peers as in a journal, communicated with peers to obtain a second professional opinion). Learning should not be done "by themselves". It should not be; "Gee, I though of a great new idea of how to mix concrete. Lets see how it works on my next skyscraper."
>Most software engineers I know are great guys who learn by themselves. Most "real" engineers I know hate their jobs.
Software Engineers should not have learned things by themselves. They went to post-secondary school (usually the hard ones), taken professional exams and are legally licensed to work in an area. The "real" have legal responsiblities (to the client and the public) for their work and that legal responsiblity has weight.
And I know "real" engineers who love their jobs. So what?
Are you talking about a licensed Professional Software Engineer?
If you are, I doubt that you've had any real world experience. Being one is not some holy grail, more like "more titles to help management feel better"
>So, which "performance" are we optimizing for? Memory footprint? Disk access? CPU utilization? Network utilization?
Thats a good question.
You need to find out that at the start of programming. And yes, its difficult but there are ways to help things. It won't be perfect but it can't be an after thought.
The question was about Dollar Cost Averaging not being the best method of investment (vs. investing it all at once).
Someone replies with a point which I believe is key to investing;
I have not read that paper or anything like it, but ignorance has never stopped me before from commenting. I am completely sure that if I did some monte carlo simulations it would show that statistically dollar cost averaging is not the optimal strategy. For example, if I understand your issue, an investor has a bunch of money and he can either invest it now or parcel it out over a number of periods. The monte carlo says invest it all now.
WRONG. To hell with that monte carlo simulation. Damn it to hell. Not even one of the top circles, but damn it down to the greatest level of pain and suffering. A few years ago (you can fill in the dates easily) there was a very long period of high stock returns. We had relatives fearful of the market, stocks sound scary and all. And each year that went by we would tell them of our double digit returns even in the indexes, while they were getting CD rates. This went on year after year. We kept telling them to invest. Finally, they announced they opened a brokerage account and invested a significant part of their money in the Vanguard Growth Index mutual fund.
And, you can guess what happened. This was about 2 months before the crash. I have to see these relatives weekly, and weekly I am reminded how they finally listened to my professional advice. Great. I would never never never never never never never again suggest that someone invest without hedging it somewhat by stringing out the investments over a period of time. Difference between real life and the damn monte carlo. Damn damn monte carlo.
>The company doesn't actually DO anything other than sue other companies right?
Lawyers do the same thing too.
Its a company that does something to provide a service. Just because you don't like what they do or think they should be making money for it, doesn't mean that they shouldn't exist.
I don't like the music a record company produces, in fact I hate it. Should they not exist?
RIM does use the cell phone network as a communication platform between the BES and the units. And the key, as you mentioned, is that the server "pushes" to the unit to inform the user of any new information (such as a new email had arrived).
>and pride of Canadian citizens is difficult to overstate.
1. This happens to any local economy, not just RIM/Waterloo. For example; Hamilton/Stelco, GM+Ford/Detroit, Big Government/Washington DC, Inco(?)/Sudbury.
2. The "pride of Canadian citizens" are not wrapped up in this. Do you have pride in what happens to B.C. softwood lumber?
>There must be a tech savvy politian who is looking into this.
No. It was a savvy business person who got a government offical to look into this.
This has nothing to do with intellectual properties any more that the softlumber issue has to do with the hockey strike.
Right now, you retire/get paid when you are 65. What happens an immortality pill becomes available?
I would suspect it would be first for the rich. And they don't need SS.
Before it hits the unwashed masses, many laws would be changed. 20 years for manslaughter? No problem, since it would be like 1 year right now.
Ok, even if you retire in 900 years from now, why the hell would you put money into it? Its money away for eons in the future, just from simple interest, you would have enough just putting a couple of dollars into it. And in about 100 years from now, no one will be collecting (or just a small percentage will).
Of course this ignores inflaction and wage pressures from a very large workforce.
So its really complex. Thats all I'm saying.
Its the load, alot of content is just text.
Don't think that just sending quest text adds to network load.
>there seems to be a prevalent myth that performance can be bolted on after the fact (the "make it work, then make it work fast" mindset).
Its not a just myth; its a damned lie that hurts all of society as a whole.
Its not that bad. According to the article it should be still ok until 2060.
>Chances are some politician is going to wreck social security between now and then
That would be suicide for the politician. One of the biggest lobby group is AARP. Old people vote and have lots of time to waste.
Wall Street did not want this.
Its 150 million small accounts with lots of work involved (advertising/accnt management/servicing 150 million low-worth individuals).
They wanted the SS to be kept as one big account and invest in the stock market. Split the account in say seven ways (for each big brokerage) and make the market go zoom!
> I seriously doubt that every single successful MMO is run soley by clueless people who don't know how to do stress analysis.
Where is Lum the Mad? He had great articles about how clueless people running the show were. From bad Customer Service to nerfing, they are clueless.
Stability takes work and money. Blizzard has both.
With City of Heroes, things have been pretty solid, including its launch.
In 2005, with the amount of money being spent through subscriptions and technology, there should be no reason why servers should be down.
"Take a look at what this new standard is all about and what we can expect from it in the future!"
Dear slashdot editors,
I think you didn't have to include this sentence from the submitter. This is not some highschool newspaper or corporate newsletter from HR. Don't take this as approval for any other sentences that makes reference to Linux in a non-Linux story or a question that just needs a "Yes/No" answer.
>Are people's jobs being sacrificed for greater technology?
Yes. Welcome to the 1980s.
>he's saying (and I agree) that software patents harm the industry as a whole.
Does he really care about the industry? He cares about it because he cares about his company first. If his company became the entire industry (was a monopoly) do you think that he would care about the other companies who used to make up of the industry? Do you think that he would avoid sales or profits (short or long term) so other companies in the industry can benefit?
Why do you care about the industry? Because it provides you a job? No, a company does that. Because you like programming? You don't need commerical ventures to do this, its can be a hobby?
Its an interesting approach and you have no idea why you shouldn't do it.
So do it.
In the end, regardless if it works or not, you will have learned something new.
>I read that as he'd accept a private list solely for internal discussion in the very short-term;
So for vendor-sec it bad if they keep things secret for a timeperiod defined by them but its ok to keep it secret for a short-term as defined by Linus? This makes things different because we trust one person?
>He believes in full disclosure of bugs, not for any philosophical bullshit or imaginary right-to-know,
No he doesn't.
From the article:
"I'd be very happy with a 'private' list in the sense that people wouldn't feel pressured to fix it that day," Torvalds wrote. "And I think it makes sense to have some policy where we don't necessarily make them public immediately in order to give people the time to discuss them.